A Fresh Mindset On Retirement Income

If you are like most people in the ‘over 50’ or Baby Boomer crowd, you are rightfully concerned about having saved enough to provide enough income in your retirement years. That income will be needed to allow you and your spouse to relax and enjoy your well earned retirement years. Like me, you have probably dreamed of the time when you would have more control over your lifestyle and not have to put up with jobs or people you do not care for just to make ends meet.

No, we want better than that! I decided long ago that, sooner or later, I would enjoy being the master of my own life and not having to do the things that I have had to do my entire career. I will probably never quit ‘working’ entirely; I wanted to just quit ‘having to work’. I will do this on my terms!

But, I have been worried! Worried about my lack of a traditional pension, the eventual insolvency of the Social Security system, the housing market, oil dependency, the falling dollar, etc, These worries combine to have me concerned whether or not I have saved enough over the years.

Maybe you have heard the analogy that defines the word ‘commitment’ It say that this morning I had eggs and ham for breakfast. The egg that produced my eggs was ‘involved in my breakfast, but the pig was ‘committed to it!

Well, since I have already ‘pulled the plug’ and begun to draw my Social Security at age 63, I am now ‘committed’. These concerns and worries had me considering going back to work at a traditional job, but I really like the freedom of a retirement lifestyle.

Shortly after I retired last year and the immediate excitement of retirement passed, I began to feel depressed. You see, most of my daily human interaction, other than my wife, used to come from my job, and now that was gone. My feelings of self worth seemed to be diminishing. I knew that I really had to find something to do.

I began about to explore the possibilities of earning some income through various internet activities. My objective was not to ‘Get Rich’ (although that would be nice!), but to dramatically reduce the amount of cash that I need to take from my investments to live on. If I can just leave my savings grow, essentially untouched, for a few years, then my confidence in the future will be greatly improved.

On the Internet, I have done several things to earn some income. I have written a book (an e book) that I sell on the internet. I have setup websites on many topics of my interest, such as power boating. Those sites host some Google ads which pay me a real small fee every time someone clicks on them. I have bought and sold items on eBay and produced videos and CD’s for sale. There are just so very many ways to earn some extra cash.

The wonderful thing about this is that these things earn money in my absence, even when I’m playing golf or sleeping, so my time is still my own. I am not tied down and we are free to travel at will – and the cash just seems to keep coming in!

These Internet-oriented projects have not produced much more than $2,000 a month so far, but I am not disappointed. I am continuously challenged to always improve on this, and I am confident that, with some effort on my part, I will. While everybody seems to want more money, I am now worried that if I am too successful, these projects will consume too much of my time to enjoy life! That would be a tragedy.

Many of my retiree friends (as well as retiree ‘wannabees’) want to know how I am doing this. For that reason, I have created a website for people to come and to learn some of the techniques and skills that it takes to accomplish this cash flow goal. Some of my ‘pupils’ have far surpassed my income level so far. Due to budgetary constraints, I have refrained from buying many of the ‘Get Rich Quick’ offers that seem to flood the Internet. I think that is a good thing. One of the valuable things that we do is host a ‘Retirement Income Forum’ where like minded people discuss their project, successes and impediments and get the real advice and input of others in the same boat.

There are many, many ways to earn extra retirement income on the internet and there is plenty for everybody! The World Wide Web is growing every day and maturing rapidly. I would recommend to anyone that could use some extra retirement income to get online right now and get your share!