When I was in my twenties, I used to refer to myself as "the Kid." And surely, somewhere in the inner depths of my mind I still believe I might wake up one morning and be a teenager all over again! Just last night in fact, I was reminiscing with a Baby Boomer friend my age about the rock concerts we used to go to in New York's Central Park every summer, when we were 17. Now, we were both saying, a good new slogan for our generation could be "Don't trust anyone under 50."



Right now many Baby Boomers may be feeling as if, "those were the good old days." and understandibly so.

Because we are all suddenly facing a world that's unlike anything we've ever conceived before-a world profoundly different than it was even six months ago. We are right smack in the middle of a perfect storm the likes of which no generation (and certainly no American generation of almost 80 million people) has ever had to face.

The U.S. economy and our nation's leadership role in the world are in serious jeopardy. Most people have not had any increase in income and buying power during the last economic boom. The Social Security and Medicare Programs, and the health care system itself, are basically on life support, and are simply unsustainable. Meanwhile, it's the first time in history that a large generation of people can expect to live more than half of their adult livesAFTER AGE 50. I'm telling you, we're heading into totally uncharted territory here.

And let me tell you also, if we as a society (and as Baby Boomers) don't get out of denial and do some more things right, it's not going to be very pretty.

So, the good news is, we're going to live another 40 or 50 years. The bad news iswe're going to live another 40 or 50 years.

And in the well-remembered words of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, You have to ask yourself one question, Do I feel lucky?

Because you and I both know that even a magic formula or silver bullet in one area (money, health, marriage, etc.) doesn't mean you're safe from the challenges in all the others (demanding, delinquent children or grandchildren, family health issues, infirm, aging parents, boredom, depression, anxiety, etc.).

In part 2 of this article, I'm going to give you a taste of what we're shortly going to be up against (if we're not there already). And some thoughts of what we can do about it. To get the free report that will change your life go to http://www.mybbrc.com/secrets/ Baby Boomers are right now facing a world that's unlike anything we've ever conceived of. It's a world profoundly different than it was even six months ago. We are right smack in the middle of a perfect storm, the likes of which no generation (and certainly no American generation of almost 80 million people) has ever had to face before. Here's a taste of what we're shortly going to be up against (if we're not there already), and some ideas of what we can do about it.

No Social Security Can you afford to ever stop working? Will your money run out? It very well could, if you start taking Social Security too early (like at age 62). I have an analysis for you on this you've got to see if you're going to have a chance of making a good decision on when to start taking Social Security.

Healthcare Shortages Medical research breakthroughs may make our body parts work longer, but it's estimated that over 1/3 of the experienced nurses and hospital administrators in this country will be retiring in the next one to three years, creating a huge shortage of care. They're burned out. And so are the veteran doctors and specialists. They've all had it. They're tired of being beaten up by the health care system, they're looking to find other ways to earn an income with much less wear and tear. So who's going to take care of us? (By the way, see my blog about hospitals at http://www.richardroll.com/2008/04/07/why-rr-says-stay-away-from-the-hospital/ if you want to know what the "new math" has done to most medical care in hospitals and why you and your loved ones should do everything you possibly can to stay out of them). Many Baby Boomers have chronic conditions of one kind or another, so maintaining our health and keeping health care affordable are paramount issues going forward.

Struggle to Keep Current Standard of Living Through Retirement How are you going to keep having the income you need to maintain your standard of living in retirement? A lot of Boomers want to keep working in something, hopefully something they enjoy; but according to statistics the odds are stacked against it. How can you have a low-stress home-based business that keeps working even when you're not? I'm working on some answers for this.

Real Estate Investments that Don't Pay Back Many Baby Boomers are over-invested in real estate, many with two homes, some investment propertiesour equity has hit the skids, and I know you're asking yourself, "Is it ever going to come back to the way it was?" The answer is, probably not, in the relevant timeframe. It's not a happy answer, but at least I have an answer.

Risk of a Global Financial Meltdown Is there a high risk of a global financial meltdown as Baby Boomers start withdrawing money from mutual funds and 401(k)'s to move it into more fixed income investment categories?

Global Competition Will Global competition, delivering comparable quality goods at bargain basement labor costs, completely do-in the American economy (and our dollar) before we know what hit us?

Healthcare Costs Going Up Health care costs for Baby Boomers on average are twice as high as for younger people, and are going nowhere but up in the future based on current trends. 85 million adults over 50 will be dealing with cardiovascular disease by 2015 according to the U.S. Census. Their health care costs will be, on average, four times higher than those for younger people.

Unwise Government Spending Our government has been choosing to spend trillions of dollars of our money in ways not necessarily in the long term best interest of our generation, and utterly wasting a lot of it, with a wanton corruption surrounding it reminiscent of Ancient Rome. Meanwhile neglecting fundamental infrastructure issues of our society-by blocking release of promising new drugs and treatments, allowing people to die instead, failing to properly assure safety inspections of commercial airliners-what are they thinking? Who's minding the store-your store? Or is it just that the political elite in Washington are going to keep having their way with our money as long as they can keep their hands in the till?

Difficult to Cope with Challenges With the combination of high divorce rates among Baby Boomers, the "sandwich generation" reality of dealing with the stress, health impact, and financial cost of caring for aging parents, while coping with demanding children who have often moved back into the family "nest," the old "nest egg" is often not what it could have been.

Are there strategies that can make it easier to cope successfully? Indeed, there are.

I've done a lot of research into these issues, and put together a series of solutions and tools the Baby Boomers will need to succeed in the difficult coming years ahead. I've committed to focusing my energies for the next few years on how all of us as Baby Boomers can live a significant, vibrant life from here on out, as well improve our physical, mental, and spiritual health going forward, and finally, leaving a more positive and heroic legacy, for our children, our grandchildren, and for posterity-both as individuals, and as a generation in history.

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