The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping the way people earn—and is likely to have lasting structural effects not only on the way businesses function, but on the way people retire, as well. Earning remotely—already a good option for retirees eager to shore up their nest eggs—is likely to become the norm, ushering in a sea change in the way retirement looks.
Right now, options for working as a baby boomer—independent of the traditional employer—are exploding. For the first time in recorded history, people don’t have to go where the work is, it can come to them.
And while this has been the case to a degree for the last 20 years, the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus-prompted “social distancing” are jump-starting a new era for remote working. It’s a global change that will have-long-standing effects not only on the way people work—but on the way they retire as well.
“Portable work has been a trend for two decades—it brought flexibility and freedom to those who learned how to take their skills online,” says Winton Churchill, creator of 21 Days to Freelancing Success Abroad and an expert in educating Baby Boomers about ways they can translate their past career experience into flexible, portable income-generating work online.
“But we’re seeing a radical adaptation right now,” Churchill argues. Business-travel options have disappeared overnight. Airlines are downsizing, hotels are suddenly seeing a tsunami of canceled reservations. The importance of ‘being there’ has suddenly given way to working virtually over the internet with voice, video, email, and collaboration.
Corporations and large organizations who felt employees needed to be in one big building are having to find ways to make it easy for their employees to work from home. And they’re discovering it’s more tenable than they ever imagined.
At the same time, many Baby Boomers who felt they were prepared financially for retirement have suddenly found their portfolios have taken a hit as markets have tanked and they may, in addition, be helping family members and friends who are unexpectedly displaced.
“It’s not just working habits that will change,” Churchill argues. “Finding new ways to relax, unwind, and de-stress are going to challenge Baby Boomers to change habits and adapt in part to online versions of all those activities.”
This pandemic is going to force Baby Boomers to master their remote-computing skills—and that’s a good thing, according to Churchill.
“Too many Boomers felt they could coast across the finish line of retirement without having to really master this ‘technical stuff,’” Churchill says. “No more. To stay connected and earning, the Boomer workforce will need to up their game and show up fully capable of being able to work remotely.”
For more retirees, earning an income of some sort is going to be important—well into their retirement years. But it is, arguably, the best time in history to be in that position of needing funds, because—like never before—earning can (as businesses are proving in real-time) be done on flexible, portable terms.
And the current shift we’re seeing in the way people are working will open the door to greater acceptance of remote work over the long term.
“No question: Boomers will have to get serious about learning to self-educate with tools like YouTube,” says Churchill. “We will have to get really good at using search engines—like Google—in a sophisticated way so we get good answers….not just lots of answers.
“We will have to learn to advocate, effectively, for ourselves using technology. Sometimes when people are working virtually they can become invisible. Now they will want to learn how to show up in ways that they stay connected, relevant, and relied on.
In other words, Baby Boomers will have to embrace technology—but they’ll be doing it in a climate that offers a lot of opportunity for those who do.
“What’s occurred over the last few weeks will change in fundamental ways the way we work,” Churchill says. “Piling hundreds to thousands of employees into large buildings just became obsolete—more or less overnight.
“Employers have had to find new ways to work closer to home, in smaller teams, using great technology. This will become the ‘new’ office norm. And that creates opportunities for all sorts of people who have marketable skills but aren’t located ‘where the job is.’”
Retirees who understand this can bring their decades of experience and know-how to a world of online earning and find new ways to generate funds well into their retirement years, working from the comfort of home, in a way that enhances their quality of life.
The key is to find one a portable income to suit you and you can kick-back and cash-in from anywhere in the world you choose.
Pick Your Perfect Portable Income
By Winton Churchill
Your next career might be a blend.
What, next career? You want to just retire and take it easy… What’s wrong with that?
Well, unfortunately for all us baby boomers, we might not be living the retirement we planned. The erosion of retirement nest eggs by economic turbulence means, for many, their retirement funds just aren’t there to carry them through.
For others, they have some retirement funds preserved but the bumpy ride seems to continue, especially for boomers who face age discrimination, endless downsizing and rightsizing, and a lack of appreciation for the knowledge, wisdom, and experience that comes along with grey hair.
At the same time, options for working as a baby boomer—independent of the traditional employer—are exploding. For the first time in recorded history, you don’t have to go where the work is, it can come to you.
It could be on a sunny beach in Mexico, or a lush forest in the mountains of Vietnam, or sampling city life in Paris, France—all places where earning online was next to impossible until the age of the internet.
How is this possible?
If you have what is called a “portable income,” you can work from anywhere in the world, set your own schedule, and decide when and where your next adventure begins.
Is it easy?
Well, yes and no.
Thanks to what’s called “job and project networks,” millions of people worldwide are earning from simple assignments they can do from their home or their favorite travel destination(s).
It’s pretty simple to get started if you invest a little time and a little mental elbow grease, and study how others have gotten off to a quick start and made this work for them.
Businesses are scouring these networks for talent and are turning in droves to freelancers.
73,000 opportunities
A quick scan I made of these job networks recently (there are over 100 of them), showed more than 73,000 assignments available on that day. Here’s just a few examples:
- Voiceover work: 1,459 opportunities
- Making PowerPoint presentations: 1,367 opportunities
- Remote customer service work: 6,673 opportunities
- Making Excel spreadsheets: 5,095 opportunities
- Internet research roles: 11,396 opportunities
- Proofreading: 3,667 opportunities
- Writing: 15,505 opportunities
- Administrative support: 7,740 opportunities
Figuring out how to tap into this hidden pool of demand can be the key to beginning your life of comfortably earning from your favorite places, where your knowledge, skills, and wisdom are appreciated.
Most new freelancers are so focused on their first jobs that they don’t take a step back and look at the big picture. Clients that appreciate your skills and depth of knowledge are generally the most profitable clients because they use your service again and again. The best way to profitably grow your business is with these repeat clients.
Knowing these three steps immediately puts you ahead of the pack in the world of online freelancing.
But the truth is, packing away all this information in your noggin won’t do you any good if you don’t put it to use. And that’s why I suggest you get your portable income career started right away.
The sooner you start, the sooner you find your profitable niche, the more portable and profitable it gets!
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