Forty years after the Summer of ’69, the peace-loving concert-goers of yesterday are now the Baby Boomers heading towards – or already in – retirement.

Do you remember Woodstock, a once-in-a-lifetime happening in August in the summer of 1969? Many of the peace-loving hippies who gathered to hear the best music of their generation are now very much part of the establishment that they once so strongly rejected.

The thought that they one day might retire and make provision for this phase of their lives would have been the furthest thing from their minds as they huddled in the pouring rain in a haze of marijuana to listen to legendary performers like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Forty years later, the rebels of yesterday are the stressed out Baby Boomers of today, heading towards retirement after spending their lives working in a system that typified the ideals that they rejected when they were young.

Whether in the USA or Australia, many of the Baby Boomers retiring will be in for a rude shock as they find, after a lifetime of hard work, that they haven’t planned sufficiently to ensure a comfortable retirement.

In many ways this is a cycle that is repeating itself for today’s generations. How quickly the idealism of youth gets blunted by decades of work in ‘The System’ until all too soon it’s time to retire. As the income cheques drop, so does the standard of living, and retirement becomes the kind of struggle that was never imagined at any stage along the way.

The good news is that there can be a happy ending. All it requires is some foresight and planning, and the time for an investment property strategy to do its work. So, while some of the Woodstock generation will have let the years slide by without a proper plan for the future, others will have made suitable plans and will enjoy the fruits of their strategy in retirement.

The message? Retirement does come around eventually, even if it seems far away right now. So plan for it and be prepared, so your Golden Years can be just that.

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