D’Aversa shapes the justification for this book around alarming figures that show not everyone can retire at Social Security age like dear old Dad did. He cites figures, courtesy of the Employee Benefits Research Institute, that show that a growing majority of people cannot retire at age 65, but must keep working well beyond the age when the Greatest Generation pulled up stakes and moved to the retirement community of Florida. Ten percent of those who do try to retire at 65, according to the US Census Bureau, “live in poverty.”
D’Aversa does assert that the Baby Boomer generation does have tools specific to their age group they can parlay into financial advantages. The irony is that the generation that railed against Wall Street now desires the financial independence capitalism supposedly can grant them. Without revealing too much, D’Aversa’s how-to-book is really less about retiring comfortably—his target group is already in their 60s—and more about gaining financial independence by owning your own business. He is helpful in the nuts and bolts of business start-ups like how to get your “name” out there in social media to promote your business; how to attract investors or customers; and, perhaps the most important step of all “how to close deals.”
D’Aversa’s book provides helpful details. He also takes into account that, unlike previous generations who had jobs for life, today’s common feature is that most people start second-careers, sometimes quite late in life. Hence, his book has value even for those younger, but as equally helpless, as D’Aversa’s target group.
BABY BOOMER ENTREPRENEUR is not afflicted with trendy jargon and New Age philosophizing, although D’Aversa does devote time on how to achieve “personal fulfillment”. But he is addressing the generation that promoted that goal, whether as hippies, yuppies, or wannabe retirees. Instead, in clear language, he gives the reader strategies that, unfortunately in books of this type, can only be validated by practicing them.
~Ron Capshaw for IndieReader