How can you capitalize on this: coming retirements

This thought first crossed my mind about 5 years ago and in the last year I've seen that some forward-thinking magazines (like The Economist) are finally starting to catch on this:

How can someone capitalize on the large-scale number of retirements coming up and the resulting shrinking US workforce?

I can't remember what the exact numbers are but in the next ten years the American workforce will (most likely) shrink significantly. Some industries will be more affected than others, but it's expected to basically happen across the board.

What is the best way to capitalize on this? I can think of a couple but would like to hear out other ideas. This can affect the subjects/careers that you study now in order to prepare for it.

As a side note, I see the next evolution after this to be another housing bust in about 20 years. Baby boomers are going to start dying off which will shrink the US population while putting more homes on the market. I think that in 20 years we're going to see a tremendous oversupply of homes in every city across the country.

31 Comments
 

securitize SS payments, ignore your risk people, leverage up 40x, sell product to buyside pplz, create legeraged instruments to bet against them, hedge entire thing with synthetic / hypothetically stable fictional securities, sell to other buyside pplz, wait for minor dip / slow down in market, not have back up plan, blow up the world, grovel in front of Congress asking for handout (oh paleez bawney fwank, paleez save ma bank), then go on TV and let everyone know how important it is you don't fail, avoid jail sentance, you're doing god's work bitchezzzz

YEEEEEHAAAAAAAA

Get busy living
 

Serious answers:

  • Geriatric medicine (have family in this field)

  • Annuities, insurance, retirement accounts, mutual funds, structured retirement financing (what I do)

  • Wealth planning (legal and financial advisory)

  • Estate planning (they're gonna die, who gets it)

  • Gold diggers who marry old folks (What Anna Nichole Smith did)

  • Con man: convince grandma to invest in cloud computing real estate

Get busy living
 
UFOinsiderSerious answers: * Con man: convince grandma to invest in cloud computing real estate

LOL! I love that one. There's probably someone out there doing that too!

 
UFOinsiderSerious answers: * Annuities, insurance, retirement accounts, mutual funds, structured retirement financing (what I do)

How big is the annuities market? My impression is most people haven't saved enough, so they're going for broke with high-risk investments. Don't you (largely) need to pay for an annuity up front?

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 
Sandhurst
UFOinsiderSerious answers: * Annuities, insurance, retirement accounts, mutual funds, structured retirement financing (what I do)

How big is the annuities market? My impression is most people haven't saved enough, so they're going for broke with high-risk investments. Don't you (largely) need to pay for an annuity up front?

Along the same lines, I'd probably become an expert in reverse mortgages instead of annuities. Most people wont have enough for an annuity and will be left with nothing but a house to get money from
 
Best Response
GentlemanJack
Sandhurst
UFOinsiderSerious answers: * Annuities, insurance, retirement accounts, mutual funds, structured retirement financing (what I do)

How big is the annuities market? My impression is most people haven't saved enough, so they're going for broke with high-risk investments. Don't you (largely) need to pay for an annuity up front?

Along the same lines, I'd probably become an expert in reverse mortgages instead of annuities. Most people wont have enough for an annuity and will be left with nothing but a house to get money from
Or use reverse mortgages to pay for annuities? X% for life - low interest rates = they could, in many cases MAKE money by putting the capital back in the markets. Personally, I'm more interested in learning what I can before shooting for insurance company /FIG coverage IBD.....there's a fucking fortune to be made in that space.

I'm only 1/2 joking about writing securitized social security payments

Get busy living
 
GentlemanJack
UFOinsiderSerious answers: * Con man: convince grandma to invest in cloud computing real estate
LOL! I love that one. There's probably someone out there doing that too!
Seriously, we've got lakeside properties with clouds, they're lovely in the spring.
Get busy living
 
GentlemanJackBaby boomers are going to start dying off which will shrink the US population while putting more homes on the market.

Yeah, but it'll also shrink your dating pool. Sorry Jack, couldn't resist, lol.

Calling Ron Paul an isolationist is like calling your neighbor a hermit because he doesn't come over to your property and break your windows.
 
Leonidas
GentlemanJackBaby boomers are going to start dying off which will shrink the US population while putting more homes on the market.

Yeah, but it'll also shrink your dating pool. Sorry Jack, couldn't resist, lol.

Oh I see what you did there!

I'm laughing because that was actually creative

:)

 
Nobama88Owning old people retirement homes... seriously.
You know, I've been tossing around that idea for a while now. But a traditional retirement home has a shit-load of overhead costs. I was thinking that there might be an opportunity for a chain of old people "daytime activity centers". There's a ton of old people that are still mobile but not enough (or not interested) to play golf or tennis. They just need somewhere to go.

Think about it as daycare for senior citizens. Maybe they live with their kids (or whatever) but don't want to be alone during the day. So you start a center with monthly dues and you basically provide game tables, TVs and maybe a medical assistant or whatever to help with pills. If you can find a way to run it effectively, I think there might be an opportunity for this.

 
GentlemanJack
Nobama88Owning old people retirement homes... seriously.
You know, I've been tossing around that idea for a while now. But a traditional retirement home has a shit-load of overhead costs.

I'm up +20.46% (weighted) on a basket of Senior Living Centers since 4 Nov. Your idea may be viable, but the overhead costs are clearly not a problem.

Compare to SPY +9.15%, XLV +8%. BKD +14.82% ALC +12.64% SRZ +37.98% CSU +12.05% ESC +15.53% FVE +46.15% ADK +4.45%

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 
IlliniProgrammer
Owning old people retirement homes... seriously.
You sure? A lot of these facilities get a lot of revenue from Medicare. Yes, MEDICARE, the entitlement program scheduled to go BK in ten years.

old people will always need a place to care for them. I dont care what happens to Medicare, old people will have to be taken care of by someone.

Own the real estate + the operation = gold mine.

 
old people will always need a place to care for them. I dont care what happens to Medicare, old people will have to be taken care of by someone.
Before nursing homes, old people moved in with their family. Meanwhile nursing homes are raking in $50K/year/patient. How many American families can afford to send grandpa to a nursing home?

No, costs will either come down or care will happen at home and be done by relatives.

 
IlliniProgrammer
old people will always need a place to care for them. I dont care what happens to Medicare, old people will have to be taken care of by someone.
Before nursing homes, old people moved in with their family. Meanwhile nursing homes are raking in $50K/year/patient. How many American families can afford to send grandpa to a nursing home?

No, costs will either come down or care will happen at home and be done by relatives.

With old people being a very strong voting block and politicians on both sides have already stated no one will see any changes in their medicare / SS if you are over 45 tells me that you dont have to worry what so ever about the government taking away $$ from those who will want to or need to go into a home. You have a good 30 years to PROFIT-- more now then any time before.

 
With old people being a very strong voting block and politicians on both sides have already stated no one will see any changes in their medicare / SS if you are over 45 tells me that you dont have to worry what so ever about the government taking away $$ from those who will want to or need to go into a home. You have a good 30 years to PROFIT-- more now then any time before.
Sure, but the REITs have medicare spending growth of 6% priced in, when in reality, in 10 years, that will be larger than the federal budget.

Nursing homes are eventually going to be Housing 2.0. Actually, we have a whole bunch of underutilized mcmansions and unemployed family members, so there's a lot of synergy for having grandma and grandpa live at home with the kids. Pay the family $50/day to take care of grandpa, and you've got a lot of cost savings right there.

That which cannot go up forever will go down. Same is true for medicare spending. And sooner than it takes for the baby boomers to pass away.

 

Supply... hearing aids.

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 

Nice time selection there. That basket was also negative in 2011.

Senior Living is an interesting long-term play on the aging of America, and the Medicare exposure is usually a lot less than most people think (20% or so). It is primarily private pay, but that also creates new problems due to old people needing to sell their house or have enough extra capital to pay for it. We know that there will be a bolus of old people, but we don't know what percentage of them will have the wealth to move into a nice senior housing center.

 
BowserNice time selection there. That basket was also negative in 2011.

Honest to god, that's when I bought. But I was cognizant of the low.

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 

My personal portfolio is consisting of a crap load of pharma companies. Everything from JNJ and Pfizer to small cap with an interesting drug designed to old people. I like to keep my investment ideas simple; People are getting older (with lots of cash) and are willing to take drugs to stay alive and kicking it with the grandchildren, and their numbers are not going down.

CNBC sucks "This financial crisis is worse than a divorce. I've lost all my money, but the wife is still here." - Client after getting blown up
 
Working9-5My personal portfolio is consisting of a crap load of pharma companies. Everything from JNJ and Pfizer to small cap with an interesting drug designed to old people. I like to keep my investment ideas simple; People are getting older (with lots of cash) and are willing to take drugs to stay alive and kicking it with the grandchildren, and their numbers are not going down.

that is what i was thinking, pharmaceutical companies would be the perfect play because old people loooove their medicine , compound that with the increase in obesity / overall American unhealthiness and I believe the pharmaceutical industry will be the next big boom industry.

 
NebraskaYounginwith the increase in obesity / overall American unhealthiness and I believe the pharmaceutical industry will be the next big boom industry.
Also look at the 'health' industry, it's approaching the $1BB mark. Some industries, like pharma and geriatric medicine, lend themselves to centralized corporate structures, aka, investment opportunities. Others, like the zillion and one holistic, acupuncture, and other fringe treatments, are still in their formative stages and it doesn't matter what you think of them....they're a damn gold mine just waiting to be mined by the right group of people.
Get busy living
 

I lot of seniors don't want to move out of their homes. In addition to the reverse mortgage idea, I'd say look into care services, meals on wheels-type businesses, and pharmaceutical delivery. Then there are all of the peripheral services they might need: gardeners, handymen, transportation, etc.

If Life Alert does an IPO, I am jumping on it. Also, go long Florida real estate.

 

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