Surely, you have heard the term Yuppie or WASP used for people of a certain part of our culture. Well, I have a new one for you that applies to millions upon millions of us, especially those that would like to partake of early retirement. If you think that you are going to be ready to retire at any point in the future, then you best understand that you are a Y.O.Y.O. That’s right, a YOYO.
Unless your family has tremendous wealth or you have hit the lottery, you will likely be YOYO � You’re On Your Own! The days of the corporate pension are over for most Americans and, with 78 million of us about to start receiving Social Security checks and Medicare, the likelihood of any sort of meaningful retirement plan being available when you are ready is really in doubt! You’re On Your Own and the sooner that you realize this and begin to do something about it, the better off you will be!
The check that you receive every month from Social Security will not, by itself, support any sort of a retirement lifestyle. Yes, you might be able to live in a shanty somewhere and survive on rice and beans, but not many people will be very satisfied with that ending to their lives!
All is not lost, however, as some other changes have occurred in our society and culture that make an early retirement a viable dream! With the advent of the Internet and of the growth of �E commerce�, comes the capability to earn streams of income that will support your early retirement lifestyle. Yes, it’s really a new and different lifestyle that can work at virtually any age! This was brought to light recently by Timothy Ferris in his wonderful new book, �The 4 Hour Work Week�. He shows there how he effectively quit working in the traditional sense at age 32 and how he enjoys several �Mini-retirements� each year while raking in enough income to support himself and his travels quite nicely.
Anyone with a little interest, enthusiasm and determination can make this happen for themselves. Remember, as a YOYO, you cannot count on anybody else to do it for you! You’re On Your Own! The key ingredient to making all of this happen is to select a niche that you are passionately interested in and to develop a plan to earn an income stream from others in that niche who want to learn from you or with you.
If you have specific knowledge or experiences in an area and can put those down on �paper’, you can create one or more information products to market to other people in your niche. Every day, there are millions of people searching for information on your subject on the internet. If you don’t believe me, just go to Google.com and enter a search on the topic of your interest. When you get the results page, look in the header to see how many places on the internet where that topic is referenced.
If you want to see how many searches are conducted on in your niche, first search Google for �free Keyword tool� and that will take you to adwords.Google.com and there, you can put in the keywords about your niche and can see just how many searches are being conducted on those words each day as well as how much competition there is in those markets.
Competition is an interesting thing. Traditionally, it would be good to find a market where there are many buyers and very little competition, right? Well, on the Internet, the rules change somewhat. Sure, you still want to see a large amount of traffic, but here, competition can be very good. First, and most importantly, it proves that money can be made in that niche. Secondly, the traffic volume on the internet is so huge that, if you have anything real to offer, there is likely going to be a market for it.
Actually, most successful �entrepreneurs� has the greatest difficulty finding a good niche to work in. If the niche of your passion is good, you are on you way to an early retirement. There are many ways to capitalize on your knowledge and passion! Just remember, You’re on You Own!