Kyle Richards’ Sunglasses at her Fashion Show and in Santa Barbara

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 10 Episode 1 and 7 Fashion

I’m not going to lie, with everything going on in the news and some other personal things going on this week, I’m not my best self. However, when @1jewelofthehills commented on our Instagram with the ID on Kyle Richards’ seemingly impossible to find sunglasses from her fashion show and this week’s trip to Santa Barbara, I knew things were looking up. And guess what? After some retail therapy consisting of these on sale, super stylish ombre aviators I feel better. And yes, I bought them before I posted, jussssst in case they sell out after I hit publish. What can I say, today I’m feeling extra shady …

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Click Here to Shop her Saint Owen Sunglasses on Sale

Originally posted at: Kyle Richards’ Sunglasses at her Fashion Show

There was a time, not so long ago, when retirees could expect to live comfortably on their previous employer’s defined-benefit pension plan. With their monthly payments determined by how long they worked for their employer, many retirees felt that they could afford to put their retirement on autopilot. And, to a certain extent, they were right… as long as their employer stayed around!

What a difference a few decades make. In 2019, for the first time, defined-contribution plans (primarily 401k and IRA accounts) represented more than 50% of global retirement savings. And, this trend is accelerating. This means that the world has a simple message for retirees:

“Sorry, retirees, you’re on your own!”

– The World

It may seem harsh to say this, but, governments and companies all over the world simply don’t see it as their responsibility to ensure that we can make ends meet in retirement. And, the truth is… even if they did care, they can’t afford to help. There are simply too many of us.

Even programs like Social Security and its counterparts in other countries aren’t expected to last our generation through retirement. Retirees who expect to receive their full Social Security benefits for the next 20-30 years are simply deluding themselves.  

The writing is on the wall. We need to accept the fact that we are on our own and develop a plan to secure (and grow) our income in retirement.

Have We Been Tracking the Wrong Retirement “Number” Our Entire Lives?

“How much have you saved for retirement?” It’s a question that we hear, in one form or another, 10 times a day on TV and the radio. We have become so trained to focus on how much we have in our retirement accounts that many of us have never asked the more important question: “How much monthly income have you secured for retirement?”

Why is this an important question? For starters, you can’t live on your savings. You can only live on the income that they generate. As a result, fluctuations in interest rates can have a massive impact on your retirement lifestyle.

But, that’s nothing new. People have been talking about the impact of today’s low interest rate environment on retirees for some time.

What is perhaps more important is the fact that thinking in terms of income and not savings forces us to think like mature small business owners, not helpless “senior citizen” victims.

When I talk with large groups of Boomers, I’m always amazed by how few of us have built retirement income plans. We may have a rough idea of how much “safe” income we can get if we put our retirement savings into bonds (which are not always safe, by the way!) But, we probably haven’t thought about how we can generate money from renting out our apartment, working part-time as a freelancer or by purchasing a fixed income annuity.

Let’s go through a few examples…

How Much “Savings” is $500 in Rental Income Worth?

$500 in additional monthly income doesn’t sound like much, until you find yourself living on $3,000 in retirement! And, can you guess how much additional money you would need to save in order to generate extra $500 in passive monthly income? $150,000! That’s almost as much as the average Baby Boomer has in total.

Here are just a few ways that you could make extra $500 (or more!) a month just by renting out your most valuable assets:

• Rent your home or even just a room (Airbnb) – read more on this here
• Rent your parking space (Spothero, Pavemint)
• Find a roommate to fill one of your spare rooms (Silvernest.com or Facebook) – more on this here
• Rent out your car (Turo and Getaround) – explore more on this here
• Rent out your RV or campervan (RVShare)

You Don’t Have to Work Full Time to Live a Full Life After Retirement

Occasionally, I meet someone who loves their day job so much that they never want to retire, but, I think that it’s safe to say that the great majority of us are ready to try something new.

In other words, retiring from your day job doesn’t mean that you need to retire from the world. My own circle of friends has a semi-retired math tutor for high-school kids, two freelance writers, a soap maker, jewelry maker, marketing consultant and a professional gardener.

My own company, Sixty and Me, works with four freelancer writers who are in their 60s or older. And, you know what, they work just as hard as any of the younger freelancers who write for us.

Do you need to work full-time? Of course not! As I said before, making extra $500 a month is like having an extra $150,000 in your retirement account. And, if you choose work that you actually enjoy, it’s a win-win!

Can You Create Your Own Pension?

Many people, including myself, arrived at retirement without a pension of any kind. Some, like me, simply worked for employers that didn’t offer defined-benefit pension plans. Others were stay at home moms, who prioritized their families over their personal fortunes.

The good news is that it may be possible to create your own pension, using an income annuity… and your monthly payment could be higher than you think.

To be 100% clear, I’m not a financial professional and I am not saying this financial vehicle is for you. But, I do hope that this gives you something to discuss with your own financial advisor.

Income annuities have been around for a really long time… over 100 years! With an income annuity, you hand over a chunk of your savings to an insurance company who, in exchange, gives you guaranteed monthly payments for life. These payments are often significantly higher than you could have received by investing your money.

The biggest criticism of income annuities is that, if you die early, you will “lose” the money that you gave to the insurance company. But, here’s the thing… you can’t take your money with you and, while you may care about leaving something for your kids and grandkids, leaving a financial legacy isn’t worth living in poverty in your most vulnerable years.

In a way, the “risk” that you take with an income annuity is similar to the risk that you take with Social Security. You pay a large amount into the program during your lifetime and it is possible that you will die before getting that money back. But, it is also possible that you will live longer than the average person and will make more money than you expected.

Are there more fancy income annuities that give you the option of leaving something for your partner or other family members? Absolutely! But, the more you leave, the lower your monthly payments may be. So, definitely talk with your financial advisor to make sure that you get the right product for you.

Income is King in Retirement

The bottom line here is that…

The number that we should care most about in retirement is the amount of money that arrives in our account each month.

Sitting on a big fat golden nest egg feels great… but, it may not guarantee that you are able to live comfortably forever.

So, take control and start to see your family as a small business with expenses and income. And, talk to a financial advisor (preferably a Fiduciary Advisor) to see if there are any financial vehicles, like income annuities, that might be appropriate for your situation.

How do you plan on generating extra income in retirement? Do you think that, as a society, we tend to be too focused on savings and not on income? Why or why not?

For most of
our lives, home renovations involve making our home more exciting, inviting and
valuable. New decks make room for summer BBQ fun, kitchen refreshes give us
room to entertain and extensions make room for our growing families.

But, it isn’t
swimming pools and baby rooms that are driving the latest renovation boom; it’s
older adults, like you and me, fighting to stay independent and mobile for as
long as possible. Because, let’s face it, who wants to end up in an assisted
living facility if they can “age in place?”

Just How Much Are We Spending on Home Improvements?

A lot! In the
U.S. alone, in 2017, we spent $424-billion on home renovations and improvements.
This represented a 10% increase over the prior year.

According to
the authors of the Harvard
report, some of this increase can be attributed to landlords making
improvements to their current apartments. But, the biggest new category of home
improvements – and one that is destined to increase in the future – was older
adults repairing and securing their own homes.

As the report said,
“Homeowners age 55 and over have dominated the home remodeling market for
nearly a decade, overtaking middle-aged owners as the primary source of home
improvement spending. Even though homeowners aged 35–54 still spend the most
per household on average, their share of market spending has shrunk from well
over 50 percent in 1995–2005 to just 41 percent since 2015.”

This trend is
also contributing to the overall growth of the market. According to the study,
over the last decade, spending by older adults grew 150% to $117-billion,
annually. This growth rate vastly outpaced the 9% average for the overall home
renovation market during the same period.

Another Example of Subconscious Ageism in the Business
World?

With seniors
(and I use this term loosely), spending so much on home renovations, you would
think that builders, building supply companies and consultants would be all
over this opportunity. But, if you take a look on Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube
and Google Images, you will see that the only “home renovations” that advertisers
want to talk about are the ones that feature 20-something Millennials,
particularly those who have chosen to live in tiny homes.

The truth is
that ageing isn’t a sexy topic. It’s not something that people like to talk
about. But, I can’t help but think that the renovation industry is missing a
huge opportunity here. Someone is going to come along and dominate in this space…
and they are going to make a lot of money in the process.

Home Renovations Aren’t Enough to Keep Us Safe… We Need
to Renovate Our Bodies Too!

As the report
pointed out, one of the main reasons that older adults are spending more than
ever on home renovations is that we are eager to “age in place” and want to
make our homes comfortable and, above all, safe.

On the surface,
older adults who install panic buttons, stair lifts and anti-slip mats are on
the right track. After all, falls are one of the leading causes of older adults
losing their independence – and 1 of 3 of over-65-year-olds will experience a
fall at some point.

But, based on
my years of work with older adults, I would argue that building a safer castle
is only part of the solution. If we really want to stay healthy and independent,
we need to renovate our bodies, not just our houses.

In a future
article, I will provide some additional tips on how to improve your balance and
strength. But, here are just a few suggestions for activities that almost all
of us can handle:

• Gentle yoga
• Tai Chi
• Chair yoga
• Balance exercises
• Stretching exercises

Don’t get me
wrong. I’m all for making our homes safer. It’s just that safety devices are
only part of the story. We can’t bubble wrap our lives… so, we need to harden
our bodies.

Were you surprised that older adults are spending so much on home renovations? Why or why not? Do you plan to do any home improvement work in the near future?

If you are a Millennial reading this title (unlikely, I know!), you’re probably thinking “What the heck is this old woman talking about? Boomers are selfish and rich. They destroyed the environment and took all of the good jobs. Boomers are a lot of things… but, ‘generous’ is not one of them.”

But, the truth is that, despite what our kids and grandkids like to think, most Boomers care deeply for their families and the world around them.

We aren’t proud of all of the things that have been done “on our watch,” but, we care about leaving the world a better place than we entered it. And we sure as heck care about the people closest to us.

And, for the record, most of us are not anywhere close to “rich.”

Don’t believe me? Consider the following…

Boomers Are WAY More Generous Than You Think

There’s no doubt that many Millennials are struggling to make ends meet. Despite the booming economy, fully 23% of Millennials are living with one of their parents.

Unlike our parents, most of whom would have scoffed at the idea of having their kids “return to the nest,” Boomers have accepted the fact that their children need their help. We’re not looking for meddles, by the way; looking after your family is just what you do. Abandoning our kids is just not an option for most of us… even if doing so could be justified as “tough love.”

It’s not just free room and board that many boomers are providing; it’s also educational support. According to a report by the Guardian Life Insurance Company, Boomers are the fastest growing generation when it comes to new student loan debt.

What’s driving this trend? Well, it isn’t our own desire to go back to school (although some of us are!) Instead, grandparents are taking on debt to help their kids and grandkids to go to college or university. The result? In the same survey, more than 50% of 54 to 60-year-olds said that college debt is holding them back from achieving financial freedom.

There’s much more that I could say here – like the statistic that 2.7-million grandparents are raising grandkids in the U.S. or fact that 41% of all charitable giving is made by Boomers. But, I don’t think that’s necessary.

The point here is that, despite the stereotypes, Boomers are generous and engaged. We want the world to be a better place… and we are putting our money where our mouth is.

When Does Generosity Become Self-Destructive?

By now, you may be asking, “So what? Helping people is the right thing to do. What’s the big deal?” To answer this, I’d like to tell you about a conversation that I had with a friend of mine, Susan (not her real name) as her situation is representative of what a lot of us are going through.

Susan, like me, is in her early 70s. She got married early and, like many women of our generation, stayed home until her kids were old enough to go to school. After that, she was hired by a technology company in an entry-level administrative position. She worked hard and, while she was successful, she never broke into the executive ranks that would have given her true financial security.

The last time I met with Susan, she was in tears. She had just got off the phone with her daughter who was struggling financially. Her daughter, a barista by day and writer by night, had called her to ask for with her car, which needed repairs. Susan was already sending her daughter several hundred dollars a month to help her make ends meet and she just didn’t have the extra cash on hand.

I asked Susan what would happen if her daughter’s car wasn’t fixed and she said that her daughter wouldn’t be able to get to work. I asked whether her daughter could just take the bus and Susan looked at me like I was crazy. “Emily is a single mom with two kids. How can I add to that pressure if I can help?”

Susan’s generosity isn’t limited to helping her daughter. A few years ago, her other child wanted to go back to school to get a better job. She co-signed on the loan, which left her on the hook for $5,000 when her son dropped out of college after just one year. He insists that he will pay her back, “When things get better,” but, in the meantime, she’s covering the monthly payments.

All-in-all, from the $3,000 a month that Susan gets from Social Security and a small pension, $400 or so goes to helping her kids, neither of which are disabled, depressed or in any imminent physical danger.  That’s almost 15% of her income going straight to other people each month.

Put Your Oxygen Mask on Before Helping Others

To be 100% clear, I’m not saying that Susan (or anyone else for that matter) is wrong for helping their kids or grandkids. This is a deeply personal decision that each of us needs to make ourselves.

I’m simply saying that I know many older adults who genuinely cannot afford to help the people in their lives as much as they are. In order to save their kids from having to ride the bus, so to speak, they put themselves at right of facing extreme poverty when they reach their 70s or 80s.

Most of these people have never even tried to explain to their families how their financial situations have changed as they have gotten older. Once the financial pillars of their families, these older adults are now in a position that they need a little extra help, not the other way around. And, they owe it to themselves (and their families) to be honest about their financial situations.

Helping others when you can’t afford it feels good in the short-term, but, it often has disastrous consequences in the future – for you and them.

What happens when you face an unexpected medical emergency and can no longer afford to help your family? Will they be surprised to hear that you aren’t made of money? What will they do when you come to them for help paying for a room at an assisted living facility? Will they be able to support you the way you supported them? I hope so!

Do you feel like parents are sometimes too generous with their adult children and grandkids – especially when they can’t afford it? Have you ever had to have a difficult conversation with a family member who asked for money? Let’s have a conversation!