I don't think I'm overly pessimistic, but I don't know anyone my age (early 50's) that believes Social Security will be there for us when we're ready to retire. The math just doesn't add up. We know there are not as many young people paying in as there will be Baby Boomers taking out. And add in the fact that the government has robbed Peter to pay Paul in the last 8 years and now there is a deficit instead of a surplus in the Social Security Fund itself! Not a pretty picture!

So I have felt an overriding drive to create something for myself that is independent of the government and a company retirment program (if there are any still out there). I feel so sorry for all those Enron employee/investors who lost everything when the company went belly up. My own landlord who is in his late 70's lost 30+ YEARS of investing in one fell swoop. Thankfully, his children are well off and taking care of him, but I have no children. Or what if your children are struggling too and can't take care of YOU?

No, its up to us to take care of ourselves and see to our own well-being and security in our "golden" years. We are all adults and have been for a long time now. It's not the government's responsibility, the company's generosity, or our children's burden to see that we have our needs met and our wants taken care of - not to mention medical costs handled.

Some very influential financial giants are urging us to wake up and smell the coffee and DO something about our future. In fact they're writing books about it. Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki are very wealthy and very savvy business men. They wrote a book together called Why We Want You to Be Rich - Two Men, One Message and one of its main themes is no one is going to do it for us. We have to take charge of our own lives and CREATE our destinies financially. I've read many of Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad books and he repeatedly mentions how worried he is for the average worker not being adequately prepared for emergencies let alone retirement!

So what are we to do? We need to EMBRACE NEWER TECHNOLOGY THAN WE GREW UP WITH for starters. Bill Gates was in his first year of college when he created Microsoft in his garage and THAT WAS WHEN WE WERE IN COLLEGE, TOO. So, we did not have computers we had typewriters. (And whew, aren't we glad we paid attention and learned how to type!! )

So what that our kids/grandkids know more about it than we do? So what that we have to go grab a local teenager to show us how to download photos? So what that young girls know more about networking through sites like Facebook and MySpace than we ever thought of doing in our meet and greet socials in person? We are NOT over the hill. We are still young, vibrant and ambitious. We can LEARN AND ADAPT and make the Internet our own medium. WE HAVE LIFE EXPERIENCE TO SHARE IN THIS INFORMATION AGE. And trading information is what the internet is all about. Let's learn how to market that expertise on the internet!

Who cares that companies look past us at a younger candidate that they can pay less? We don't because our income is not tied strictly to that company, if at all, once this INTERNET MARKTETING ball gets rolling....

So after embracing the technology of our children's children's generation, lets IMMERSE OURSELVES IN THE SOFTWARE AND WEBSITES AND LEARN IT. Get comfortable with it. Navigate effortlessly and quickly. Join the Social sites and NETWORK the NEW AGE WAY. Have friends GLOBALLY rather than locally and brainstorm and trade knowledge and THINK OUTSIDE THE SCREEN. Learn to monetize ourselves and our websites.. Learn what monetizing means!

That's the strategy I'm employing and it works. Along with my full time corporate, job, I have a Home Based Network Marketing Business that is growing thanks to the Internet. (I represent a wonderful new technology - DNA Customized Vitamins - formulated for an individual from genetic testing. Amazingly affordable and now available to the masses.)

And no, I don't go press my friends and family with it and approach complete strangers in Wal-Mart, or in the grocery line, either. I have learned a better way. A NEWER TECHNOLOGY WAY that goes with the 21st century and the INFORMATION AGE. It is called ATTRACTION MARKETING where THE CUSTOMER COMES TO ME TO BUY OVER THE INTERNET rather than me go to them to SELL AND CONVINCE.

(Click here to watch my "vivacious video" that I made with my best friend Vicky, giving more information on this Attraction Marketing strategy - The Dallas Divas & Their Lies!! The Truth About MLM Online!)

When people find my blog and articles and social networking postings, they get to know me. They decide I am someone they like and wish to do business with. They come to me PRESOLD on my ability to help them and their trust in me is quite high. This makes me a consultant rather than a salesperson, a role with which both of us are much more comfortable!

Now I'm not just writing any old thing and sticking it up on the Internet. And, I'm not willy-nilly making friends and connections on Facebook and MySpace etc.... either. I have a MARKETING STRATEGY THAT I LEARNED FROM SOME PROVEN PROS. You can learn the same strategies. But choose your mentors wisely. There are a lot of guru wannabes out there. Not all of them are skilled, knowlegable or honest for that matter.

It's our FUTURE we're talking about. Embrace, immerse, learn, grow and adapt - with the Internet, we can make retirement exciting and fearless!