Guidant Financial Group Blog

You gotta’ hand it to those Baby Boomers. The children of the age of experimentation are still actively bucking the traditional system. Guidant survey data indicates that nearly one-third of new business owners using the alternative financing route of IRA or 401(k) funding are aged 45-50. We gleaned this stat from a survey of business owners who used our 401(k) small business financing vehicle to launch their enterprise as a retirement account investment.

There could be many reasons for this statistical result. The most obvious is that the retirement-fund equity needed for financing a private business usually isn’t available until people have worked for several years. The skills required over those years may also add to the confidence necessary for venturing out on one’s own.

Considering that a 2006 study by Merrill Lynch showed that 71 percent of Baby Boomers intend to keep working after retirement age, there are some who want to get a jumpstart on their future self-employment by investing in a business before they leave their current “regular” jobs.

Others included in this age group are those who, due to current job insecurity or unexpected lay-offs, have taken the leap into self-employment earlier than they originally intended.