“We don’t stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing”.- George Bernard Shaw.

Baby boomer women are still in step with the latest trends in clothes, hairstyles and makeup. We still want to wear the high heels and the jeans. We still want to turn heads as we walk down the High Street. I hear women say they feel invisible after hitting a certain age, but that needn’t be the case.

There’s nothing nicer than seeing a mature woman dressed fashionably and exuding self confidence. After all we’ve had plenty of practice over the years to know what suits us and how to dress to make the most of our best features and camouflage the worst.

Our Generation
We are not ready for winding down and opting for an easy life in our retirement like our parent’s generation before us. Many baby boomer women will continue working well into their 60’s. For some it may be a necessity because of financial reasons, but for many it’s a choice because we enjoy what we do.

As a generation we have lived through an era of many changes. We are more widely travelled than our parent’s generation, and many of us have dreams to spend our retirement years travelling and seeing more of the world.

We tend to look upon retirement as a new beginning in our life with new opportunities to embrace. It’s the time to take up new hobbies and interests and to expand our social horizons rather than retreat from life. We expect to continue learning new skills and some of us are turning our hobbies and interests into businesses to fund our dreams.

Of course as we grow older there are many challenges ahead. We are what has been referred to as the “sandwich generation”. Many baby boomer women still have children living at home and at the same time have caring responsibilities for either aging parents or loved ones.

My Experience
My own challenge was caring for my Mum for 6 years following the death of my Father. She was diagnosed with Alzheimers 18 months after Dad died. As she deteriorated I was forced into an early retirement, having to spend more and more time supporting her. However, as a result she was able to continue to live in her own home with the right support and help, which was what she wanted, until three months before she died. Something of an achievement for both of us!

While she had been ill I had found it increasingly frustrating to find the help and support that we needed. You know what they say “if I knew then what I know now” things could have been very different.

After she died it left a huge gap in my life and I started to explore the internet looking for business ideas. The only experience I had of the internet previously was using it for research and sending and receiving e-mails. But I was on a mission because I not only needed a project to focus on. Like many other baby boomer women I also needed to find a way to supplement my income. The more I learnt the bigger the ideas became.

I started to explore the idea of building a website for baby boomers about to retire. After all in my former job as a Training and Development Manager I had run retirement courses for many years. Whilst caring for Mum I had encountered so many problems that we had to find a solution for, as well as experiencing the roller coaster of emotions that you have as a Carer.

I suddenly realised I had all this information that I could pass on to other baby boomers and it would be a great idea to do a website that would give practical tips and advice for those retirement challenges. The website is interactive so that you can tell us about your own dreams and challenges for retirement. The idea is that if we all share our own experiences we can help each other to get the best out of our retirement years.

So here I am in retirement, like many other baby boomer women, setting out on a journey with new challenges. Stepping out of my comfort zone entirely with technology! Developing and learning new skills as I progress and thoroughly enjoying it. There’s a page where you can share your plans for retirement and read about what other baby boomer women are doing. We would love to hear from you.

About the Author

Pat Price found herself in retirement after six years of caring for her Mother who had Alzheimers.

Formerly a Training and Development Manager with a global Construction Company she now writes about retirement issues both from her own personal experiences and the knowledge she gained delivering retirement courses.

Baby Boomers Retiring is a website that offers practical advice and guidance on a range of topics relating to retirement.

Some of the popular topics covered are: financial planning, ideas on earning a supplemental income, the pitfalls and advantages of retirement properties, retiring abroad, caring for aging parents, releasing equity from your home, but most of all it’s about living and enjoying an active life.

The website also offers the opportunity for visitors to share their own experience and knowledge. It’s so much easier to make decisions when you are well informed. By sharing experiences and ideas we can all get the best out of our retirement years whatever challenge life throws at us.