A while ago on our Investing Beginners discussion board, a Fool Community member who goes by NYMogul posed an interesting question about the baby boomer generation. He wrote: "I was wondering if anyone is investing in stuff that targets them [the boomers] as they enter into their later years." He then listed a host of companies that serve an aging population: From the health-care field, he mentioned Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) and Pfizer; from biotech, Genzyme (NASDAQ:GENZ) and Genentech (NYSE:DNA); from recreation and travel, Harrah's (NYSE:HET), MGM Mirage, Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL), and Carnival; and from finance and insurance, MetLife (NYSE:MET), Prudential, and several others.

As usual, fellow board denizens chimed in with their thoughts. Member OIB1 noted, "Vis-a-vis boomer plays, I think you want to look at stocks that pay dividends. A favorite is Enterprise Products Partners, a pipeline [master limited partnership] that yields about 7% and is highly tax-advantaged. It owns critical pieces of energy infrastructure, grows its dividend 7% to 9% per year, is run by a legend, and is about as safe a bet as you can have going forward." You can learn more about Enterprise Products Partners by trying our Income Investor newsletter for free. A free trial gives you full access to all past issues. We recommended that stock twice in the pages of Income Investor, and it's up more than 30% since the first recommendation.

Another good suggestion came from DAVE9778: "Good mutual funds that specialize in drugs and/or health care would be good bets." You'll find lots of market-beating mutual funds recommended in our Champion Funds newsletter. You can try that one for free, too.

Member Bogwan explained that he isn't so bullish on the prospect of boomer-based investing, but he does like Zimmer (NYSE:ZMH), a company that makes replacement body parts. (Note, however, that Zimmer and some of its colleagues have recently received subpoenas.) He pointed out in another post that not everyone will be able to retire, what with pension cancellations, the costly war in Iraq, and other factors. But NYMogul countered that even if people work longer, most will still eventually retire.

Pop in to our board to read the whole discussion and to offer your own thoughts.

My take is that each potential investment should be evaluated on its own. It can be helpful to look for systemwide drivers, such as an aging population, but remember that even companies serving young people may prosper in the decades ahead. After all, business is becoming more global, and many other societies are sporting young and growing populations.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for some top-notch, high-yielding investments, I invite you to test-drive (for free) our Motley Fool Income Investor newsletter. Doing so will let you see a list of Mathew Emmert's "best risk-adjusted values" and the investments that he thinks offer the most potential upside over the coming five years, excluding risk. On average, his recommendations are beating the market, up 13% versus 9%. As of the last time I checked, more than 20 of his picks sported yields above 5%.

For your further reading pleasure, here are some articles of possible interest:

Eli Lilly is also an Income Investor pick. Pfizer is aMotley Fool Inside Valuerecommendation.

Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article.