Baby Boomers should start to worry in my view. My title could become fact. The level of apathy displayed on the part of many if not most Baby Boomers about managing and protecting their nest egg is frightening. Government may be forced to take control to save us from ourselves.

I have to say I was not at all surprised by the survey results I read in the Australian Financial Review yesterday. The article written by Barrie Dunstan was on a survey conducted be Mercer Financial into what I assume is Baby Boomer awareness of their imminent retirement and the state of their nest eggs.

What they found was very concerning and in my view and could end up with governments taking control of the distribution of our nest eggs in the belief they can do a better job of managing, protecting and tracking our retirement nest eggs after retirement.

Just take a look at some of the findings:

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A Baby Boomer friend of mine has sent me his WRAP Account results through to June 2008. We both decided in November 2006 that we would hand our retirement nest eggs over to the “Professionals” so we could spend our time doing other things as we move into semi-retirement.

Our retirement nest eggs were put straight into a diversified portfolio of mutual funds within a few days of giving our financial planner our money.

It turns out that our timing could not have been any worse. From November 2006 through to November 2007 the markets became more volatile. Property was in the doldrums already but then we got hit with International fixed interest losses because the Aussie dollar was rising against the US Dollar. Then we got hit again with dropping interest rates in the USA. The International share losses offset the Australian share gains to give us zero returns.

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I was doing some research today for some future posts and came across an article that talked about the subprime mortgage crisis. It was talking about the fact that mortgages do not necessarily want to walk away from their mortgage. They just can’t find out who to talk to about it.

Due to the subprime mess their mortgage is now owned by several hundred investors who could be anywhere in the world. So there is no chance of them ever meeting the mortgage owners. Can you imagine how frustrating that might be? They cannot go and see the local bank manager to ask for some breathing space like we could in days gone by.

I’ve always had this view that once a transaction is even once removed from the two people who conduct it, simple problems may become impossible to resolve and often any sense of personal responsibility is lost too.

Right now many of us have our retirement money invested with people we have never seen and never met. There is a complete separation between us, our money and the person who is supposedly looking after it for us. We even forget about it ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »

My eBook "What Every Baby Boomer Should Know about Protecting Their Nest Egg in Retirement" is now available. This eBook is the result of several months research into how I could protect my Nest Egg now I am in semi-retirement. It is packed with information which is explained without using high level finance jargon. In fact it is not an investment book at all. I’m not qualified to offer investment advice. It aims to inform you about all things other than stock market losses, inflation and taxes that can "eat" your Nest Egg in Retirement over the long term.

It was after becoming frustrated with my Financial Advisers and their seeming disregard to understand that the rules of investing change when someone starts to draw down their Nest Egg. Just some of the things include:

The number one thing in Retirement is to minimize the losses NOT maximise the gains.

High Fees of 1%-3% will significantly reduce a Nest Egg over the Long Term.

Reverse Dollar-Cost-Averaging works against Baby Boomers in Retirement.

Using Average Returns to predict Nest Egg survival is dangerous and could send you broke.

Losing Capital is far more dangerous to a Retiree than someone still in the work-force. This fact appears to be lost on many in the financial planning industry.

Therefore it is vital that Baby Boomers actively take control of their Nest Egg when in Retirement.

The eBook offers insight into the many ways a Nest Egg can be taken from a Baby Boomer before their very eyes  - and it’s all legal.

The eBook is aimed at first alarming Baby Boomers with the information, and then arming them to take control of their Nest Egg. It does not advocate going it alone necessarily, but rather how to take charge of a meeting with a financial planner and make sure they are working to protect your Nest Egg when you are in retirement.

"What Every Baby Boomer Should Know about Protecting Their Nest Egg in Retirement" is available for purchase and immediate download at:

 Protect Your Nest Egg in Retirement

A Blog can also be located at www.protectyournestegginretirement.com where any comments are most welcome.