DiannePurdie.com

Health, Wealth, Relationships & Happiness

Two kinds of baby boomers?

Posted on | April 5, 2011 | 6 Comments

Sadly I’ve neglected this blog for the past 6 months but my life hasn’t been idle!  My husband, David  and I have been working almost every hour God gives us trying to establish alternate sources of income so we won’t be retired and broke at age 65.  We are currently 57 so that is 8 years from now.  I’m an American living in England and observing the news reports and the people of my age whom I know here.   My observations are that this is a much more conservative culture than the US.  I have colleagues at work who have paid off their mortgages or are close to it.  Most of these people have been married to the same person for over 35 years and haven’t had businesses, divorces and big moves.  The news today reported that there are more people have paid off or are contributing extra in order to pay off their mortgages than there are people who have taken out new mortgages this past year.  Or maybe it was the amount of money in vs out that they were talking about rather than number of people.  They suggested that as interest on savings is so low people are seeing adding equity to their homes as a much better investment as they are paying off a higher interest than they could save and earn.  Makes sense, but for a couple like us who still have credit card debt paying that off will certainly come before paying off our interest only mortgage.  Yikes, credit card debt at age 57, not good.  My 20 something daughters don’t have any credit card debt, they have followed more in their grandparents’ path than in mine and that is a good thing.  Hopefully they will also only be married once like their grandparents.

My category of baby boomer is the many out there who have followed their passion, owned businesses, divorced (in my case 2 times), moved (in my case to another country), involved themselves in all sorts of personal growth/self help, attended millionaire mind training (in my case twice), tried various forms of entrepreneurship including internet marketing, wrote a book etc etc.  We were the entitled baby boomers, the ones who did it our way.  We were/are the risk takers, the positive thinkers and the followers of law of attraction.  We believed, still do, that we can do anything and won’t be one of those that winds up broke at 65.  Still broke at 57 but I do have 8 more years and I’m still open to all possibilities.   We would like a location independent lifestyle and are still searching for the right passive investment/businesses to get us there.  We are very different from the people I know here who will live in their mortgage free house and have pensions from both the government and their own investments/savings over the years.  They took the slow steady path with one spouse in one house and in some cases the same job for a very long time.    I don’t think the slow steady path is my destiny in this lifetime and I think I would have been very bored with it, still there is a small bit of jealousy around their 9 – 5 lifestyle that includes having fun evenings and weekends.  David and I are both workaholics.  The law of attraction/Abraham says we should stay in our vortex of joy.  We are incredibly happy with our relationship so perhaps that constitutes joy for us rather than going to the pub and drinking.  I believe ‘joy’ is very subjective.

I would love some feedback from both types of baby boomers and younger people on these ideas of financial security and joy of living.

Category: Debt Busting, Financial freedom, Freedom, happiness, The law of attraction, Wealth Creation
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Comments

6 Responses to “Two kinds of baby boomers?”

  1. Marta
    April 5th, 2011 @ 7:25 pm

    Wow! I admire your honesty and willingness to share your situation. I can totally relate. Being 58 – I’m in the ‘future is coming full speed ahead’ mode, too. I’ve also had 2 divorces, multiple businesses, and many moves (cross country – not international). I, too, live by law of attraction concepts (for a decade longer than the concept became ‘popular’ and my finances have been hit by the tital wave of being diagnosed with leukemia while in between jobs. All that in mind – I do live a lifestyle worthy of millionaires. As a joy coach & creativity catalyst who shares her talents freely with the world – I have no true ‘means of support’ outside of the Universe. I will be following your journey with interest and promise to let you in on any ‘money manifesting miracles’ I discover.

  2. Dianne Purdie
    April 5th, 2011 @ 9:17 pm

    Thanks so much for responding Marta. I wondered whether telling this truth would lower my vibration and cause what I don’t want to come to me. Yet it seems that many of us repeat affirmations and pretend our financial situation is wonderful when in fact it is not. We are alike in many ways and I too have led a miraculous out of the ordinary life so great idea to stay tuned in to each other and help each other.

  3. Dorothy Sander
    December 31st, 2011 @ 4:54 pm

    Dianne, You put in words something that I have always struggled to accept about myself and that is the winding path I have taken. I too would have died of boredom on a steady secure path and yet I sit back and look at my brother at 72 who did exactly that and his life looks infinitely better than mine. He’s not only financially secure, married to the same woman forever, grandchildren to spoil, he’ls healthy, busy, involved. I can’t find one thing wrong with him! (well, maybe one!:)) The point is, he never doubted himself. He did what he was born to do and that is that. Simple and clean. Not me! I still can’t say I’m exactly sure what my purpose is and my husband with his own struggles, almost always self-employed, find ourselves in much the same situation that you are in. We joke with our children that we will be living in their back yard in a camper or tent in a few years. I hope that it is indeed a joke! I too will continue to follow your journey. I believe in creativity wherever it leads.

  4. Dianne Purdie
    January 5th, 2012 @ 5:00 pm

    Thanks for your honest comments Dorothy. I too hope that is a joke about living in your kids back yard! My daughters are worried that they will inherit my debt!

  5. Billy Delaney
    May 29th, 2012 @ 10:39 pm

    Yep! this is the truth.
    I am 56, lived on three continents by age 24. Moved, more times than I want to think about. Wife cancer, daughter, a daughter while a kid herself. Fought the contraints of others to find myself.
    I’ve had careers a plenty, good at most, bored with all of them in the end. Don’t doubt myself, except in the middle of the next crisis.
    I’ve sold thing since I was nine years old. Now I’m ready to tell others what it is that they don’t get told when they set out to do the same.
    Next week, in fact, my site http://www.TheSmallBusinessCompass.com will be there to see and explore.
    Thanks for your honesty, I saw that you followed me, and I tend to look for a site before following back.
    Your post, this one, struck the nail.
    I call us ‘boomerangs’ ‘cose we are thrown away by the current scene: only we are going to come back.
    We have the knowledge, skills, mindset, ethics and more… that the next gen does not.
    Business will still need to operate despite itself, and eventually they will need us even more.
    all the best Billy

  6. Dianne Purdie
    June 7th, 2012 @ 4:02 pm

    Wow Billy, you have had an interesting and different life as well. I agree that we boomers are reinventing things now. “Retirement” sure isn’t what it was for our parents! I don’t think we would want it to be! I’m looking foward to your new website!

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