The Retirement Surge

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Floridaill

Florida is the retirement capital of the USA.   I guess Marathon is the center of gravity for freshly retired new cruisers.  Twice in the past week I witnessed two very similar cases.

One couple came to the marina with a brand new kayak from West Marine, still in the shipping wraps.  Then they sat at the table and unboxed a Macbook Pro ($3000), plus his and her iPads, plus his and her iPhones.  When they got the computers online, they went directly to Amazon.com and they each started pushing the "BUY NOW" button on everything they saw.  I may be exaggerating, but it seems that these people are spending money at the rate of $1000 per day.  For many of them, that is over and above $300,000 for a brand new yacht.

Ten years ago, it was our turn to do likewise.  The first days of the first weeks of the first year of retirement saw us making lots of purchases to equip ourselves for our new life style.  We may have spent less than some, but it was still a surge.  Upon reflection, I realize that the same probably applies to newly retired people on water, on highways, or on land in condos.  Retirement triggers a short term surge in spending.  Therefore, a surge in retirements, triggers a double surge in sales.

We all know that the baby boomers have reached retirement age.  How could we not know?  The media is full of stories about that.   Perhaps less obvious is that boomers who might have retired in 2008-2013, may have delayed their retirement until this year because of the recession which is now "over".  Therefore, 2014 sees seven years worth of boomers all retiring at the same time.

I think that now would be a great time to be in any business that sells things popular with newly retired people.  Anything; boats, RVs, condos, cars, cruises, sunglasses, furniture; anything at all.