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Eighty-seven-year-old Lew Manchester has just returned from a three-week trip touring Buddhist temples in Laos and cruising the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. His 61-year-old daughter Lee lives year-round in the basement of her friend’s Cape Cod cottage, venturing into the winter cold to get to the bathroom.
Lew is making the most of his old age. Lee is paring back and lightening her load as she looks ahead to her later years. Both worked all their lives, both saved what they could. Yet Lew, a son of the Great Depression and former company man, and Lee, a baby boomer who has pursued careers as an entrepreneur and a mid-level manager, are winding up in two very different economic strata.
Very interesting comparison and thoughts on Boomers and their parents and how the economy has evolved.
Quote:
While plenty of baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, have become affluent and many elderly around the U.S. face financial hardship, the wealth disparity of this father and daughter is emblematic of a broad shift occurring around the country. A rising tide of graying baby boomers is less secure financially and has a lower standard of living than their aged parents.
The median net worth for U.S. households headed by boomers aged 55 to 64 was almost 8 percent lower, at $143,964, than those 75 and older in 2011, according to Census Bureau data. Boomers lost more than other groups in the stock market and housing bust of 2008, and many also lost their jobs in the aftermath at a critical point in their productive years.
With pensions, SS and over 800K in investments and travelling the world at age 87 he has a 77 year old girlfriend to accompany him. He must rule the Assisted Living facility and his girlfriend is probably the envy of many a lady.
The boomers took on big debt items later in life than their parents did.
Boomers bucked the trend of previous generations and are now paying the price for it.
Few stayed in their homes for 30 or so years.
They had kids later in life.
They spent a lot on their kids.
I'm a boomer and saw it happening all around me.
While I was saving and living beneath my means there were peers at work buying boats, vacation homes, annual trips around the world and when I retired early these same people asked me how I could afford it.
Interesting article, although the title of the article comes off as seeming to blame the father for living like a king while his daughter lives in poverty. To dig in a little bit is to discover that isn't really the case. He assisted her in the past and appears to be willing to do more if asked.
She'll also be eligible for social security within a year, yes? (not that SS is going to be the answer to all of her woes, but it will certainly boost her monthly income enough to where she can move into her own place if she chooses to).
This is the median net worth of that age group? Really?
Wow.
Pathetic isn't it ?
And so many articles blame it on the recession. But I can't help to think they didn't have much assets to begin with compared to debt. The boomers were also the birth of the "consumer" generation that had to buy, buy, buy and upgrade every couple of years and were sold on all this disposable stuff so they had to keep buying more of it.
This is the median net worth of that age group? Really?
Wow.
If you have a net worth of $1.00 yes one dollar you have a higher net worth than over 30 percent of other adults. Those who live at or near the poverty level or who take on debt may live their lives with negative net worth. That can really bring any average down. Live poor retire poor. The many millions who have never owned a home have never had home equity.
LOL Muonic, explain your wow, please. I had to look up median to be sure I wasn't wrong about the meaning of the word.
$143+ thousand net worth is pathetic? (Now I'm going to look up net worth).
Interesting article.
Net worth in includes all your assets..home, savings, IRA, 401K MINUS debts.
I had that kind of net worth when I was in my late 20's mostly due to a very lucky RE purchase in South Florida.
Thanks for the article. This sounds a lot like my family. My father is 88 and receives 2 pensions, health benefits, social security, etc. He brings in well over $100,000/year. I have 2 siblings that each receive a small pension check and another sibling who worked her tail off and will receive none. Of the siblings receiving pension checks, one has never owned a home and the other has owned his home since he was in his twenties. The sister who worked her tail off lives in a tiny row house. We are all Boomers, none of whom resent my father's income. My father is frugal, but also generous. We were raised in a blue collar household and I suspect our experience is not uncommon.
I think of it this way: My siblings and I may not have much in terms of capital, but we have a strong support system as well as knowledge and experience living on the edge.
As I've repeatedly stated to my father, I'm more worried about my children's generation than mine.
I have always found "net worth" to be pretty meaningless and in this example we are only talking about 11k difference between the two generations. I have been retired for 26 years and during that time my "net worth" has constantly changed (although I never calculate it). My focus has always been to develop many different streams of income and mitigate taxes. My Wife who is 30 years younger is just now entering her prime earning years which combined with our family social security benefit (starting in 2 years) will enable me to get to 85 without touching my "nest egg".
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