The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Top 10 reasons for baby boomers to be optimistic

Yesterday’s post on the “Top 10 Baby Boomers Challenges” wasn’t upbeat. In these tough economic times, the problems can be great.

Here’s the other side of the coin, ways baby boomers can embrace new thinking and opportunities during the recession:

1. Reinventing yourself

A job loss or downsizing at your workplace can lead to the opportunity to look at what you really want to do in your work life. Doing research and finding companies or agencies that are hiring rather than only responding to ads are techniques that work even during a recession.

2. Reducing spending

Buying less and having fewer things often lead to a simpler and happier lifestyle.

3. Focusing your business

A recession offers the opportunity to slow down, examine your business, and make plans for the future.

4. Thinking positively

It promotes positive solutions and can draws things to you as in the Law of Attraction.

5. Investing opportunities

The financial crisis offers investment bargains if you have any new money to invest. Be sure to work with a financial planner to help you make wise choices in these unusual economic times.

6. Making different retirement decisions

Delaying retirement may have its advantages. You may be able to come up with a plan, such as moving to a lower-cost community with fantastic part-time employment opportunities, which will be better able to meet your retirement needs.

7. Improving health

Job changes and spending less may free up more time for exercising, walking, running, cooking nutritious meals, and learning relaxation techniques such as yoga. 

8. Contributing to the community

With the economy sagging and unemployment at record levels, you have the opportunity, through various community programs, to help those who have lost their jobs and homes.

9. Experiencing a more progressive society

With an administration in the White House that believes in pro-work, health-promoting policies and consumer protection, boomers can benefit from a federal government that serves them better.

10. Getting greener

Green projects and organic food sales are on the upswing. It’s a good time to consider green jobs, goods and services, and volunteer opportunities. Check green Web sites such as Green America, formerly Co-op America, Worldchanging, and Global Exchange for information on what’s happening. You won’t find many reports about green activities in the media.

Let me know your opinions. What do you see as opportunities for baby boomers today?

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Top 10 baby boomer challenges

What are the top 10 difficulties baby boomers face today?

With the recession continuing, many boomers are stressed about money, jobs, and housing.

Here’s my take on the top 10 things worrying boomer consumers these days:

1. Setting a retirement date

With investment returns and housing prices down, many boomers are postponing retirement.

2. Keeping a job

Older workers are often the first to be laid off, so boomers have concerns about being able to remain in the workforce. Or, they’re unemployed and looking for work.

3. Declining health

As boomers get older, the chances of becoming ill – including developing a serious illness or having a heart attack – increase. 

4. Rising health care costs

Health care spending has risen about 2.4 percent faster than GDP since 1970. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project that by 2018 health care spending will be more than $4.3 trillion or $13,100 per resident and account for 20.3 percent of GDP. Meanwhile, the quality of health care diminishes, including an increased risk of getting an infection when you go to the hospital.

5. Dwindling home values

In 2008, home sales prices fell an average of 9.5 percent, the largest annual decrease in 39 years.

6. Handling family relationships

Tough economic times make it more difficult to visit with adult children and their families who are spread across the country. Or, adult children may need to move back home due to job losses and financial setbacks. 

7. Increasing costs and the inability to pay off debts

Costs are continuing to rise while raises and promotions disappear, making it more difficult to pay off credit card debt.

8. Decreasing leisure activities

With money tight, the opportunity for vacations and health club memberships are reduced. 

9. Increasing stress levels

More demands at work, less time to spend with family and friends, and the intrigues of social networking make it difficult to find a time to relax.

10. Increasing declines in environmental quality

Although the Obama Administration has plans to turn around the environmental destruction of recent years, the sweeping changes needed aren’t yet in place.

Let me what’s of concern to you as a baby boomer. 

Tomorrow’s post will discuss “Top 10 Reasons for Baby Boomers to Be Optimistic.”

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Restaurants serving smaller portions for cash-strapped consumers, baby boomers

In these tough economic times, restaurants are beginning to get the message. Consumers don’t want or need plates heaped with food, which are detrimental to their waistlines and bank accounts.

Restaurants across the country are experimenting with special menus and offerings to increase their traffic volumes, according to the article “Restaurants Go Small to Boost Sales” on Reuters.com.

The effort targets penny-pinching consumers who might need lower prices to justify a visit to a sit-down restaurant, as well as diners such as baby boomers and women who are looking for smaller portions.

Among the restaurants experimenting with smaller servings are:

• Chipotle Mexican Grill

• Outback Steakhouse

• T.G.I. Fridays

• Quiznos

• Cheesecake Factory

• Burger King

• China Bistro

When you dine out at these restaurants or others, be sure to ask if they have any smaller option menus or items available.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Kevin Danaher on building the green economy

Kevin Danaher, cofounder of Global Exchange, believes the environmental and economic crises create an opportunity to focus on green, local solutions that work.

Since corporations have destroyed forests and streams, moved their factories overseas, and ruined the economy, the need to develop local green economies is obvious, Danaher said at the Seattle Green Festival last weekend.

In the new green economy, life values rule over commerce, he said. “Life is sacred and commerce is just an activity.”

Green economic sectors are doing well and are growing faster than the rest of the economy. Danaher sees great potential for geo thermal, wind, and solar energy. 

He gave examples of trends and activities that are occurring:

• Colleges are greening their campuses to attract students. See www.globalcitizencenter.org for information on how students and faculty can develop a sustainability plan for their campus.

• A two-year degree is being offered in energy efficiency for computer server farms.

• The number of green jobs is increasing. See www.globalcitizencenter.org for details.

• More than 900 cities have signed on to the Kyoto Protocols.

• Solar panels to heat water are found on many roofs in China.

• City and state governments are saving money by going green. Los Angeles has installed LED light bulbs to reduce carbon emissions. Salt Lake City is capturing and using methane from a sewage treatment plant to provide electricity. San Francisco has a fleet of green vehicles

• The Institute for Self-Reliance is working on regulations that better serve the public and communities in The New Rules Project.

• The International Council for Local and Environmental Initiatives is a group of local, regional, and national government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development.

• Green VC provides news and resources on green venture capital, funding, and startups.

• Natural Capitalism Solutions offers tools to help green businesses succeed.

The Green Movement, based on sustainable local values and action, is changing the nature of the world, Danaher said. In the cultural shift, people are solutionaries, not revolutionaries.

Global Exchange and Green America, formerly Co-op America, sponsor the Seattle Green Festival.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

What’s in your bright, green future?

Alex Steffen, executive editor and cofounder of Worldchanging.com, is a big, green idea guy.

Steffen tracks what’s going on in green innovations and writes essays on the possibilities for the future. The popular book he edited, “Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century,” is a 600-page tome of writings from more than 60 leaders around the world.

Tall, dressed in jeans and a dark blazer with his white shirt untucked, he addressed his audience at the Seattle Green Festival and flung ideas out at them – one after the other.

Steffen sees the possibility of the world becoming choked with people, with the demographic tilting to the old and young.

Four billion people in poverty have seen the American lifestyle on television, and they want to climb up into the middle class. The most watched TV program in the world is “Bay Watch,” and the world’s poor are saying, “I’ll take my version of that.”

Educational opportunities need to be extended to women throughout the world, he said, because when women have choices they have fewer children. If education is provided to every woman, population could see peak this century.

While the poor are “getting rich,” our job is to reinvent what “rich” means, Steffen said. Americans need to consume less of the world’s resources, reduce their impact on the earth, and develop a restorative economy.

“We can do that,” he said, adding “It’s not going to be easy.”

Changes are needed in how:

• Infrastructure is constructed.

• Transportation is provided.

• Minerals are used.

• Waste is handled.

• People live in cities.

Some things that are working:

• Mountain Dwellings near Copenhagen, where livable, suburban apartments are stepping up the “mountain” above the car parking space.

• Huge flowerboxes added to buildings that provide shade and food to eat.

• Yard sharing where people garden in your yard and share the produce with you.

• Street lights that turn off when moonlight reaches a certain intensity.

• Meters in the home so people reduce usage when they see the dial spinning fast.

• Car sharing.

• Bicycle sharing programs such as Bicing in Barcelona.

• Tool sharing through tool banks where you can checkout tools.

• High-end purses and jewelry rentals, such as Seattle’s Bag, Borrow, and Steal.

Things that are operational but need to be improved:

• Google walking maps.

• An iPhone program that will tell you when the next bus is coming.

Ideas for the future:

• A smart grid that can take inputs from electric car batteries and other sources which have extra energy.

• An iPhone readout of how much energy and materials are imbedded in a product you can receive after taking a picture of the product.

• Cell phones that pop into components when heated so all the parts can be recycled.

Steffen said the economy of the future is a high quality of life at a low ecological impact.

“We can do it,” he said, adding a better place can be created than what’s happening now with the destruction of the planet.

“We’re all in this together,” Steffen said. People in balance with the planet will make a life everyone can enjoy.

The Seattle Green Festival is sponsored by the Global Exchange and Green America, formerly Co-op America.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

David Korten calls for new economy based on real values, wealth

If you like Yes! Magazine, you’ll love David Korten’s new book “Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth.”

Korten, cofounder of the Positive Futures Network, electrified his audience at the Seattle Green Festival this weekend with his plan to get America’s financial system on a more socially responsible track.

With the earth in peril, inequality tearing us apart, two wars, and Wall Street still in charge of the economy and money-driven politics, citizens need to take action, Korten said. “We can’t wait for [President] Obama to get us out of this.”

In the new economy Korten envisions, Wall Street will be shut down. President Obama can’t do that without millions of people in the streets to demand our release from Wall Street rule, he said.

The financial crisis is about phantom wealth – modern chits, which are created out of nothing and protected with the demand for no government regulation.

“It’s time to reboot,” Korten said.

Phantom wealth needs to be replaced with real wealth based on real values such as education, land, love, happy, healthy children, satisfying jobs, a sense of worth, a healthy environment, and peace.

We’ve failed to notice that making money for a few, which is supported by public policy, is destroying the wealth of many, he said. People are losing their jobs and homes while corporate executives get huge bonuses from government bailout money.

The Gross National Product is based on consumption – the faster Americans consume, the faster it grows and the rich become richer. New jobs for all are supposed to occur, in the trickle down effect. 

When using GNP to guide the economy, resources are extracted, used up, and disposed of. The country moves into bankruptcy.

What we need instead, Korten said, is to reduce overall consumption and redistribute resources.

“We need to reduce GNP,” he said, adding it’s essential to keeping our nation and species healthy, ending war and converting to peace, changing our economy, getting out of our cars, and going green.

Korten believes we need to set sensible priorities and align our resources accordingly.

The new economy needs to focus on Main Street. The logical foundation is green jobs and sound environmental practices. Healthy Main Street activities need to be accelerated.

The Wall Street economy has disintegrated, and Main Street needs to separate itself from Wall Street with a Declaration of Independence, he said. 

Korten would like to see a social credit money system adopted. Money would be issued by the government to serve the public good. This would strip Wall Street money managers of much of their profits.

No bank should be too big to fail, he said, and no bank should be at risk from the failure of others.
Korten believes large, troubled banks should be nationalized, broken into pieces, and sold to local branches, savings and loans, and credit unions. 

“There’s nothing exotic about this,” he said, adding, it’s the way banks were organized when we were growing up.

Korten also suggests that hedge funds and huge insurance companies be shut down because they serve no useful purpose. 

Korten believes Americans need to begin to have conservations about economic issues and simple living to transform America.

“We have the power to turn the world around for ourselves, our children, and future generations,” Korten said. “You are who you have been waiting for.”

Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., also spoke at the Green Festival. Tomorrow's post will be "Alice Waters and the Locally Grown, Organic Food Movement."

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

How big are your state’s budget troubles?

Yesterday I commented on an article by U.S. News and World Report that said health care, education, and government are the industries that will be hiring older workers during these recessionary times.

Since I live in a state government town, I wondered how government work could be considered hot for 50-plus baby boomers. Boomers here in Olympia, Wash., are worried, worried, worried, especially those who are unemployed.

Even after the $135 billion in federal aid gets spent, many states will be having budget problems unless they initiate big spending cuts or tax increases, or both, according to the article "States' Budget Woes Will Outlast the Recession" on msnbc.com.

In the short-term, the stimulus funds will help balance budgets and keep key services, such as Medicare, going. However, the money won't quickly stop high unemployment, low consumer spending, or housing market distress. These factors are causing the nationwide tax-collection shortfall that's expected to continue even after the economy begins to recover, according to the article.

Real Clear Politics offers a list of “Top 10 States in the Biggest Budget Trouble.” They are:

• California

• Illinois

• New Jersey

• Massachusetts

• Florida

• Pennsylvania

• Georgia

• North Carolina

• Connecticut

• New York

The article, based on information developed by the Center on Budget Policy Priorities and Wall Street Journal, offers information on each state’s deficit and how much economic stimulus money they’ll be receiving from the federal government.

The approval rating for each governor is listed as is whether he or she is up for reelection in 2009 or 2010.

I was surprised that Washington state wasn’t on the list of most budgetary challenged states.

We’ll see as the recession grinds on whether government and education hiring will indeed be a lifesaver for boomers.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Are health care, education, and government good places for older workers to find jobs now?

It’s difficult for older workers to find jobs. It’s especially trying during this recession because older workers are often the first to be laid off and offered early retirement deals.

Citing a 5.9 percent unemployment rate in January 2009 among workers age 55 and older, U.S. News & World Report decided to consult career counselors to find out if any industries are hiring these workers.

Here’s what they found, as reported in the article “Three Industries Currently Hiring Older Workers”:

• Health care. Because the number of older people is increasing, more home health care workers are being hired. Jobs for administrators, customer-service personnel, technicians, nurses, pharmacists, and social workers also are available.

• Education. Math, science, and special education teachers will be in demand. Openings in early childhood education also are expected due to federal economic recovery funds.

• Government. Positions at the local, state, and federal levels are anticipated because of federal stimulus money. The Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Assistance, and Peace Corps are recommended because they’re on AARP’s National Employer Team made of companies and agencies with an interest in hiring older workers.

Let me know what your experiences are with these three industries in the current economy.

Here in Olympia, Wash., the capital of the state, jobs are being cut in state agencies, colleges, and public schools. More than 8,000 jobs may be lost in state budget cuts.

Are big cuts occurring in government and education in your state?

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison

Photo: Legislative Building and other state campus buildings, Olympia, Wash.

Organic Transitions offers way to survive and thrive in turbulent times

The Organic Consumers Association is offering a new grassroots campaign called Organic Transitions. It’s designed to mobilize consumers and local communities to begin planning and carrying out transition strategies to help people survive and thrive in the turbulent times ahead.
 
Using this new model, organic food and farming will provide a healthy cornerstone for a new, more localized, and sustainable green economy, according Ronnie Cummins, national director of the association.

“We don’t have to wait for Washington bureaucrats or corporate marketers to tell us what to do,” said Cummins in his article “Organic Transitions: Beyond the Gloom and Doom of Economic Depression, Climate Change, and Peak Oil” on Organic Consumers Association.com.

The effort will begin with citizens organizing Organic Transitions committees and campaigns in local areas, he said. Local organic food buying clubs will be contacted and house parties and study and action circles offered.

Cummins said the timing is vital:

We still have a strategic window of opportunity to take back control over our political, cultural, and economic institutions; to create millions of urban and rural green jobs; to transform our educational systems; and to make a smooth transition from fossil fuels, climate chaos, and resource wars to a renewable, peaceful, solar-based agriculture and economy.

I agree with Cummins that we need to green and relocalize our economy and our politics.

Recently I blogged about “What Consumers Need to Do to Help Themselves During the Great Recession.”

I wrote:

What’s needed, I think, is for consumers to join together and help each other in these recessionary times. Consumers, as a player in the economy along with businesses and the government, can have power in the marketplace. However, they seldom organize and act on their own behalf. Consumers more often identify with the interests of the company or group they work for rather than their consumer interests.

Organic Transitions is a great way for citizens to come together to help formulate a new economic model so that we can survive and thrive in tough economic times.

For more information about Organic Transitions, see the Organic Consumers Association Web site.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Baby boomer Michelle Obama planting White House organic vegetable garden

It’s exciting that Michelle Obama, a baby boomer, is organizing an organic garden at the White House.

It’s a good way to show people you can get really wonderful, organic vegetables by growing your own garden. And, it’s great way to save money during tough economic times.

Obama will also use the garden as an opportunity to talk about the American diet, according to the to the article “White House Gets Vegetable Garden” on CBS News.com. 

Obama was joined by 26 students today, as she broke ground for the White House garden, according to “White House Gets Vegetable Garden” on CBS News.com.

The group prepared the soil to plant mint, corn, squash, and beans. The students will return in June to harvest the vegetables and cook with the White House chef.

Lettuces for the garden will include red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf, and galactic, according to the article “Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House” on The New York Times.com.

Spinach, chard, collards, and black kale also will be planted. A patch of berries will be used for desserts. Herbs will include unusual varieties such as anise hyssop and Thai basil. Two bee hives will make honey.

Sam Kass, an assistant White House chef, who prepared healthy meals for the Obama family in Chicago and is an advocate of local food, will oversee the garden, said The Times article. The total cost of seeds, mulch, and other materials is $200.

Eleanor Roosevelt planted a vegetable garden on the White House grounds that inspired a victory garden movement, which led to the creation of 20 million gardens growing about 40 percent of America’s fresh produce during World War II.

This year, about 43 million U.S. households plan to grow their own fruits, vegetables, berries, and herbs – up nearly 20 percent from last year, according to the National Gardening Association. Saving money on bills was the No. 2 reason they gave for the increased interest in gardening.

What do you need to do to plant a vegetable garden? Here are resources to help you get started:

“How to Really Start the Garden” – Backyard Gardener.com

“Vegetable Gardening Basics: Creating Your Own Vegetable Garden” – The Garden Helper

“A Basic Vegetable Garden – Survival Food and Simple Survival Tip – How to Plant a Vegetable Garden” – Suite 101.com

“How to Start a Vegetable Garden” – eHow

“Gardening Guide: How to Grow a Vegetable Garden” – Green Daily

Obama’s efforts are encouraging to me to get my organic vegetable gardening going this year. Last year, during my first year of blogging, I didn’t take the time to garden, except for some container gardening.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist