My 401k has taken a beating, and took one in the late 90s, and, and, and… I have been counseled to move funds around in an informed manner and hang in there, which I do. I work as hard as I can fit in a day, and save for the day it can actually translate to (golly!) parttime work. I don’t ever see not working as an option. I have been working fulltime since I was 13, and I am just tired. There have never been family inheritances, no trust funds, I cannot afford to buy a home. And yet, I know I am better off than other people. These discussions, and looking at the chasm between myself and the types of women who started this website just wear me down.

This man is someone I believe who should be read by every investor in this country: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article4022091….

I do have and idea that might work for some. Those of us who come up on retirement without a lot of assets have to be creative. This works when you have a sizable equity in your home. In 1986 they passed a law that people over 55, I think, can take the equity out of their home without paying capital gains on $250.000 of it, more for couples. Then you can invest how you want. I chose to invest in a tri plex, I knew when I retired I wouldn’t be able to afford the property taxes on my Victorian. A duplex won’t work unless you can pay cash for it. It supplies me with a place to live and I have my renters paying my property taxes etc. All I have to pay out of my social security is food and personal needs. I work from time to time for fun money. Now I just have to worry that my tenants keep their jobs. It also keeps me from being one of those people whose income never goes up. The rents do keep up with inflation.

Is this article talking about baby boomers/retirement or how to be competitive and make money in the future?

Entrepreneurial Green’s the thing—-in more ways than one.

Dear Mr. Nocera, Love the book cover. On the west coast venture capital is flowing to green technologies, esp nanotechnologies and there is a hightened sense of social entrepreneurialism, and environmental responsibility—particularly since 90% of America’s wine is produced in California, it’s the #1 finished agricultural crop and wine grapes are so vulnerable to climate change. [ie wine production contributes $51.8B overall to the state economy and $125.3B to the national economy. Compared to Americans spending $110 billion a year on meat-based fast food—or more than on all books, DVDs, CDs, movies, magazines and newspapers combined.] It’s expected that this summer, for the first time in history, all the North Pole ice will melt….underscoring the gravity of the Climate Crisis. The #1 thing we can do is to capture coal plant emissions. If you look at a satellite image of Earth the greatest concentration of carbon emissions comes from the US eastern seaboard. I hope that while promoting your book that sustainability would be highlighted and not what further imperils the environment and our health; like further oil drilling or building of nukes. We have the technology to harness the sun that gives out more energy every second than ever used in all of human history. And when prior to the advent of nuclear development, fallout from Hiroshima, Nagosaki, from nuclear testing, and leakage from the nuclear plants, and the nuclear waste buried in land and at sea, there was no isotope strontium-90 outside of labrotories. Now it in inside every person and animal on earth. In addition, the billions of tons of Agent Orange, defoliants, depleted uranium, pesticides, herbicides, industiral pollution, automobile exhaust that are dumped into the environment, and the toxic specters that ghost from our landfills—-all haunt the entire eco-system, including our bodies. We are the environment. Cancer is epidemic….3,000 die in the US everyday from environmentally related cancers alone. Solar arrays in deserts could power the US generating enough clean energy to meet the country’s needs many times over, according to a new report from Environment Florida. A 100-mile-by-100-mile solar thermal installation in the American Southwest could meet the entire country’s energy needs. That area is slightly larger than US land strip-mined for coal. China is making solar cell billionaires practically overnight. What is needed is something akin to a Marshall Plan that could make economies sustainable. Whatever nation is the first to create something innovative along the lines of Ford Motor assembly-lines with nanotechnology combustible engines, etc….is going to all but end US auto-making, and the organics movement will move people further away from petroleum based products. ie Whole Foods and organics are the growth grocery segment…and those shoppers know everything that contains petroleum, and also drive import hybrids. San Francisco is banning plastic bags and plastic bottles. I for one am all for making money…because as you said it can have enormous social benefits. But for me, I don’t not buy, watch, consume, invest in, or participate in anything that is not environmentally aware, and see many areas where new enterprises could help fix our pressing problems; ie -30% of the landfills are filled with construction debris—we need more reuse of those materials—one woman in Malibu is building a new home out of an old 747. -We have a nation of people seriously hurting for basics, combined with a nation that has a growth industry in storing it’s unneeded junk. Some social enterprise folks need to put together a US wide free-cycle site a la Craigslist that would include construction materials, and government surplus give-away links (people have built entire homes from materials free from government recyle sites). -Homeless (mostly men) collect bottles and cans from city trashbins (that would otherwise be hauled to landfills) and haul this around in big plastic trash bags…and then onto public transport, slow arduous process. I asked one man how much he makes a day. He said $12 if he works nonstop. Seems there could be a way to encourage this ‘casual labor,’ which helps the environment too, and saves cities from capital outlay for new recycle bins alongside sidewalk trash bins, plus the extra labor to pick them up. -I think businesses instead of creating more new junk we don’t need, could be in the business of remaking what we already have and don’t use, including home businesses. One woman collects old clothes and material and weaves these into rag rugs…she has a waiting list of clients. Women are making hot selling purses out of old candy wrappers. Here for example is a blog how-to…http://candywrapperpurse.blogspot.com/ -Because of fuel costs people are getting on bikes, but many can’t afford new bikes, thus Recycle a Bike operations are springing up. Something that can help people and also help a handy individual who could work from their garage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1pKe7W3dL4 Look forward to reading your book! And hope everyone remembers that it is the small women owned businesses that employ more than the Fortune 500 combined.