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Are you a baby boomer feeling anxious about your retirement? Do you feel like you’re behind on your savings and investments? If so, don’t worry because you’re not alone! Many people in the baby boomer generation are feeling the same way. However, the good news is that it’s not too late to jumpstart your retirement savings.

I will share some tips that can help boomers like you jumpstart your retirement savings. These tips are simple and easy to follow, but they can make a big difference in your financial future.

First, stop dwelling on the past. You can’t change what you didn’t do in the past, but you can start taking action now to secure your financial future. Write down your financial regrets on paper and then destroy them. This exercise will give you closure and allow you to focus on the future.

Next, track your spending and cut out unnecessary expenses. Small purchases like coffee and lunch can add up to a significant amount of money over time. For example, if you save $10 a day starting at age 52 and invest it at an average rate of 8%, you could have over $294,000 by age 70. Bach also advises cutting monthly expenses in areas such as cell phone bills and unused memberships at a health club or country club.

Third, eliminate debt. Carrying debt is counterproductive and expensive, especially for boomers carrying large balances on credit cards. Consider moving your balances to new cards that offer zero percent interest for several months, and renegotiating high-interest rates with existing card companies. Use the money saved on interest to pay down your debt, and once it’s gone, only charge what you can pay off every month.

Fourth, pay yourself first. Don’t wait until you’ve paid all your bills before saving. Instead, save at least one hour’s worth of pay each day and establish a 401(k) account for this money. If you haven’t started saving for retirement yet, aim to save two hours of pay per day. Establish automatic withdrawals from your paycheck into your retirement accounts to make saving even easier.

Finally, consider starting a part-time business. Many entrepreneurs over the age of 50 have turned hobbies or part-time businesses into extra income. Bach recommends consulting work or part-time teaching in your field of expertise to earn extra income that can be saved for retirement.

By following these five simple tips, you can jumpstart your retirement savings and secure your financial future. Don’t let procrastination hold you back any longer. Take action now and start building the retirement nest egg you deserve!

For more Healthy Money Tips Listen to our PodCast  “Money 911”

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Did you know April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month? This month recognizes the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect. Abuse doesn’t always leave bruises on the outside — it can come in many forms.

For many parents, the thing they wish for most is the ability to control their kids, ideally with a remote control! They are tired of every request turning into a shouting match, and just want the room cleaned, or the dishes done.

When I guide parents through the world of conscious parenting for the first time, many parents are often unsure or hesitant about the idea of abandoning rewards and punishments with their children. They feel that if they don’t reward the behaviors they want more of then they won’t happen again and that if they don’t punish their children when they misbehave they will keep doing the wrong thing and that they are being permissive, that their kids will not learn right from wrong, and by indulging bad behavior their children will fail to grow up and be good citizens. My question to them is, “Why do you want to teach your children to be obedient and reward them for doing as they are told?”

The intent behind my question is to help parents realise that what they really want are children who are considerate of other people’s feelings and needs rather than obedient and compliant. Dr Marshall Rosenberg said two questions that reveal the limitations of punishment are:(1) What do I want this person to do? (2) What do I want this person’s reasons to be for doing it? Punishment and reward interfere with people’s ability to do the things motivated by the reasons we would like them to have.

Children who are taught compliance will only clean their rooms when you ask and likely with resentment or possibly they have learned to be a people pleaser. However, children who are taught consideration are able to recognise when their room is getting messy, understand how important having a clean home is (if not to them to you), and clean it without you having to ask! In essence, children who are raised with consideration have the ability to think about the effect of their actions on others, and choose behaviors sometimes because they have adopted the value themselves and at other times out of consideration for others values.

Understanding the difference between true consideration and compliance, and which one we are fostering in our children, is one of the cornerstones of conscious parenting. Traditional, behaviourist parenting models propose that children should be quiet and subservient to the adult. In fact, as a society, we are so conditioned to believe that children should just behave that we don’t stop to think about the ramifications of those teachings. Do we want children to learn to blindly obey individuals they perceive to have authority over them?

Dr. Louise Porter wrote, “Throughout human history, children have always been considered the property of their parents, to do with as they wished. Therefore, child abuse has long been a feature of all societies, with the killing of children, child sacrifice, mutilation, enslavement and sexual abuse all socially condoned in Western societies until the 4th century CE and still practised in many industrialising societies today. Infanticide was widely practised; once it began to be discouraged, abandonment became common. The result was that more European children died from abandonment than from the combined plague epidemics. This history still casts its shadow on modern life.”

Types of Abuse

Child maltreatment comprises neglect of children’s physical or emotional needs, and physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Of these types, neglect constitutes more reported cases than the other forms in total, although emotional abuse is probably the most pervasive but more difficult to quantify and thus report. Many children suffer from multiple forms of abuse simultaneously which complicates calculation of the rate of child abuse with estimates varying. Researchers propose anywhere from 20% to over 50% of children aged 2–17 experienced two or more varieties of victimisation. These types spanned physical assault, peer or sibling victimisation, property victimisation, witnessing another being victimised, sexual assault and physical maltreatment.

Child maltreatment comprises neglect of children’s physical or emotional needs, and physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Of these types, neglect constitutes more reported cases than the other forms in total, although emotional abuse is probably the most pervasive but more difficult to quantify and thus report. Many children suffer from multiple forms of abuse simultaneously which complicates calculation of the rate of child abuse with estimates varying. Researchers propose anywhere from 20% to over 50% of children aged 2–17 experienced two or more varieties of victimisation. These types spanned physical assault, peer or sibling victimisation, property victimisation, witnessing another being victimised, sexual assault and physical maltreatment.

Sexual abuse involves the exploitation and coercion of children by someone more powerful than them. Most childhood abuse is perpetrated by someone familiar to the victim. In many cases, this is a parent or another close friend or relative, such as older siblings or their adolescent friends.

The first measure for supporting children is to remember: “I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it” and realise it is rare that children will disclose directly that they are being abused, instead they may give vague hints or display some signs that we don’t want to ignore as doing so increases the chances of the abuse recurring to this child and others in the perpetrators life.

Steps to take:

(1) If you see unusual injuries ask how it happened and do not believe implausible explanations. Let children know that if someone told them not to tell anyone, let them know it is wrong for anyone to tell them to keep a secret forever and they can talk to you about anything. Encourage them to talk but do not force them.

(2) Reassure children that help is available, but never promise to keep the abuse a secret or suggest that they should forget about what has happened. Their trust has been violated and they need protection from a recurrence.

Abused children will need emotional support to surmount the adversity and injustice they have endured. Children who have been maltreated tend to withdraw, with the result that they are often overlooked or ignored in educational or care settings. Alternatively some behave disruptively or with aggression. By school age, perhaps 70% of children experiencing behavioral problems have suffered abuse or neglect. In response, their interactions with teachers often comprise coercive discipline such as punishment for “bad” behavior. This adds yet another layer to the abuse they have already endured. Therefore, it will be important to ensure that you do not respond to their provocative behavior with controlling discipline.

Some guidance measures include the following:

• Listen to and validate their feelings, this will affirm they are valued.
• Allow them to be assertive about meeting their needs.
• Avoid all praise and other rewards that cultivate an external locus of causality, that is low self-efficacy
• Deliver no punishment when children behave disruptively or aggressively, but instead help them regain command of their emotions by them taking time away from the setting, doing something soothing, thereby teaching them to practise handling emotional arousal.

As always, if you need a safe space to discuss any suspicions, my door is open.

Love and Blessings,

Katherine

P.S. Looking for a little mid-week guidance with your conscious parenting journey? We have good news! Katherine and our resident pediatrician, Dr. Lauren Fulkerson, have returned with Tuesday Tips in our private Facebook group!

Business Ecosystems are one of the most commonly used terminologies across the business landscape. We often see institutions mention these ecosystems, and we also often hear high-valued companies worldwide likewise employ these business ecosystems to generate and improve customer value efficiently. So how do we define business ecosystems?

A business ecosystem pertains to the network of organizations that includes customers, suppliers, distributors, competitors, foreign policymakers, and so on. All these players are involved in the production and delivery of a specific product or service. The business ecosystem is simply the concept where members of its system must work hand-in-hand with and around each other in order to stabilize the system, thus optimizing the collective benefit. Like any other ecosystem that naturally exists in the world, a perfectly balanced ecosystem benefits all participants involved, and the opposite hold true to poorly defined ecosystems. Participants in the business ecosystem achieve more value if they work collectively than work individually. Every business ecosystem has its own participants, and this ecosystem requires at least one or more members to serve as the orchestrator that is held responsible for the structure and performance, including its Governance and management. A good understanding of the business ecosystem and its application is critical for companies to keep up with, or even stay ahead, of the global change of pace.

Dramatic changes in global demographics have been taking place. To give an example, the United Nations has predicted that by April 2023, the world’s largest population will be taken over by India from China. China’s population has already peaked while India’s is growing continuously. With this rapid expansion of population, the challenge lies in India on how it can capitalize on this. Most of this population in India belongs to the working age sector, and in theory, it should mean greater productivity. But there are many obstacles to this. Thus various sectors have explored the use of Business Ecosystem Models to help overcome these barriers.

As they say, no one entity can do it all in today’s intense competition in the business world, no matter how powerful and mighty. If you remain isolated, then you run the risk of getting left behind. As the idea of digital collaboration is becoming more common today, companies must cooperate and engage in business ecosystems. Through this cooperation, it can lead to various advantages not only for the company itself but for its potential customers as well. These companies can be granted access to multiple networks by plugging into these business ecosystems. With this, they will be able to find more customers in an easier and more timely manner, get access to new sources of data, and even improve established business processes.

One of the most common barriers to why organizations do not want to be involved in business ecosystems is the lack of familiarity with the framework to begin with. This common pitfall makes many companies, from small to big, avoid the idea of engaging in ecosystems. Various seminars and framework model lectures are being made to combat this barrier.

Perhaps one of the sectors which can fully appreciate the advantages of engaging with this business ecosystem is no other than the technology sector. Even start-up companies with promising technological products will be given an equal chance of global recognition through the use of these business ecosystems. Aside from the technology sector, the health and wellness sector also is a promising area for ecosystems. As of today, people have been focused greatly on pharmaceuticals in order for them to provide solutions to various health issues, be they physical or mental. Emerging solutions to difficult-to-treat problems like Post-traumatic Stress Disorder are currently underway and has been made possible through the use of networking between business. Expansion of ideas and business growth has never been faster, thanks to these business ecosystems.

Building and maintaining an ecosystem remains, however, a daunting task. Business ecosystems are more of an art rather than a science. One of the most difficult aspects of ecosystem leadership is that companies need to face two interdependent tasks: to maintain the organization (Internal Governance) and to maintain the ecosystem. Both have their own distinctive challenges, and both need to be addressed. Organizations that lack the necessary framework and structure can easily fall prey to these ecosystem challenges. As a result, their production, if any, will be predictably uncoordinated. And this lack of coordination will, in turn, will lead to poor decision-making and many opportunity costs.

Big and complex companies especially find it challenging to maintain Internal Governance. This is because these companies find it hard to let go of the command-and-control Governance. This centralized and bureaucratic culture makes it quite unattractive for members who thrive on speed and flexibility. To overcome this, central control must give way and empower micro-organizations’ periphery to decide and adopt operating models as the situation arises. This not only promotes autonomy but also promotes a faster decision-making process. For this to be effective, the business ecosystem must have a strong framework of values and business strategies.

In contrast to Internal Governance, the maintenance of the ecosystem is a different challenge. One difference is that ecosystems lack the constitutional framework that we can see from any organization. Moreover, members of an ecosystem may also have adopted different operating models, and folding these diverse models to work under one organization is almost impossible. Lastly, the members of the ecosystem must also deal with often unpredictable, constantly changing dynamics. These challenges can be mitigated by creating a deal structure that is based on the mutually negotiated terms of the majority of the members, established primarily on the value shared by most.

The ecosystem and its members affect and are affected by one another, thus creating a constantly evolving relationship. Each member of this ecosystem must be flexible and continuously adapt in order for the whole system to survive. This concept has revolutionized how companies approach their respective businesses. These business ecosystems allow quality goods to be marketed effectively by collaborating with different members that are working hand-in-hand in this partnership.

MarketAtomy LLC has developed a true business ecosystem committed to strengthening the small and micro business sector. This ecosystem brings together industry experts, mentors, and coaches in a multi-level information distribution model targeting small and micro business owners.

The goal of the ecosystem is to reduce the number of failed small businesses through education, cognitive awareness, accountability, and resource management. For more information go to www.marketatomy.com.

Danna Olivo is a Growth Strategist, Author, and Public Speaker. As CEO of MarketAtomy LLC, her passion is working with first-stage business owners to ensure that they are prepared and equipped to launch and grow a successful small business. She understands the intricacies involved early on in business formation and as such the challenges that come with it. A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s College of Business, Danna brings more than 40 years of experience strategically working with small and medium businesses, helping them reach their growth goals. danna.olivo@marketatomy.com