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TuborgP and TheShadow and even Sgoldie you all make great points. It is a dichotomy of sorts where there are a lot of people with money and those that do not. What is even more interesting is really how cheaply some folks can live and still enjoy retirement.
I have been thinking about what retirement would look like for us. I see many paths and none of them bad. Health is the main concern but health is something we have only a cursory control over. Sure we can eat healthy (what foods are good now may not be so good tomorrow) and we can exercise (will that also turn our bodies to ticking timebombs?) So worrying about health outside of what we know to do leaves us with a lot of time on our hands. How to fill it with meaningful and enjoyable activities will spawn a whole new industry.
On the flip side with investments. Boomers taking their investments into cash out of the stock market will leave a large hole so to speak. It is hard to picture that but I guess for every seller there will need to be a buyer. Will there be as many buyers as there are sellers? Or will the market level out to allow fewer buyers to pick up the slack?
I thought the article would generate some smiles and even some discussion on whether or not it is good.
Another "issue" is that Boomers may live quite a long while, so there is some concern that many might outlive their retirement savings if they aren't frugal from the beginning...so there might not be as much leisure spending as some quarters think.
I'm of the same vintage (born in 59), and feel that we are doing better financially than most of our old friends, and much of our family, due to our being frugal and forgoing big international vacations and such. Now that we are retired, we moved here to our "high end recreational community" and now I am like "What in the heck did these folks do for a living?" I am astounded at the money these retired folks have to put towards upgrading their homes and buying sports cars. Either we are not doing as well as I thought, or we are still the frugal ants and they are the crazy, spend it all grasshoppers again.
You're Generation Jones, a term coined to describe people born from approximately 1954 - 1965.
Born around the time of the Missile Crisis and JFK's assassination, coming of age in the 1980s, some could not vote for a president until Regan's 2nd term. We experienced hyperinflation, 18% interest rates, long gas lines, and starting out right smack in the middle of boomers who were at their peak of their purchasing power driving prices up.
Boomers and Joneses had dramatically different formative experiences. The Jonesers were too young in the 60s to really internalize the idealism claimed by the Boomers, and they watched those same idealists sell out in the 1980s when everybody dove for the cash. As Gen Jones came of age there were huge expectations growing up during the height of postwar optimism. Many will not get pensions, worry if SS will be there are distinguished by it pragmatism, its tempered skepticism.
There was Watergate and watched the Nixon. We watched the Gulf war live on TV and the pride we felt as they got in and got out. Then there was Bill Clintons and his many liaisons including Monica Lewinsky and we remember Bill Clinton on TV pointing his finger while he said "I did not have sexual relations with the woman" as Hillary went after those women with a vengeance. I was surprised she stayed with him and then it was easy to figure out.. it was a political decision.
Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age, hence constant Viagra and Depends commercials. Gen Jones expects to work until they are 70 and will not really start hitting retirement until 2024.
I am quite willing to concede that Boomers have made lousy political leaders. This would include Bill Clinton (1946), Hillary Clinton (1947), George W. Bush (1946) and Tom Delay (1947), with Jim Webb (1946) and Al Gore (1948). Gen Jone is not starting off much better (Obama).
This money is designed to support folks well into old age. If there is excess, it will likely go to heirs. It's not going to unleash a windfall of consumer spending or something.
You're Generation Jones, a term coined to describe people born from approximately 1954 - 1965.
...
Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age, hence constant Viagra and Depends commercials. Gen Jones expects to work until they are 70 and will not really start hitting retirement until 2024.
Well this is one Gen Jones'er (honestly have never heard of this phrase until this minute) that sure as heck didn't wait to 70 to retire. I guess I have always been an outlier.
You're Generation Jones, a term coined to describe people born from approximately 1954 - 1965.
Born around the time of the Missile Crisis and JFK's assassination, coming of age in the 1980s, some could not vote for a president until Regan's 2nd term. We experienced hyperinflation, 18% interest rates, long gas lines, and starting out right smack in the middle of boomers who were at their peak of their purchasing power driving prices up.
Boomers and Joneses had dramatically different formative experiences. The Jonesers were too young in the 60s to really internalize the idealism claimed by the Boomers, and they watched those same idealists sell out in the 1980s when everybody dove for the cash. As Gen Jones came of age there were huge expectations growing up during the height of postwar optimism. Many will not get pensions, worry if SS will be there are distinguished by it pragmatism, its tempered skepticism.
There was Watergate and watched the Nixon. We watched the Gulf war live on TV and the pride we felt as they got in and got out. Then there was Bill Clintons and his many liaisons including Monica Lewinsky and we remember Bill Clinton on TV pointing his finger while he said "I did not have sexual relations with the woman" as Hillary went after those women with a vengeance. I was surprised she stayed with him and then it was easy to figure out.. it was a political decision.
Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age, hence constant Viagra and Depends commercials. Gen Jones expects to work until they are 70 and will not really start hitting retirement until 2024.
I am quite willing to concede that Boomers have made lousy political leaders. This would include Bill Clinton (1946), Hillary Clinton (1947), George W. Bush (1946) and Tom Delay (1947), with Jim Webb (1946) and Al Gore (1948). Gen Jone is not starting off much better (Obama).
I think the Boomer cutoff does need to be prior to 1964 (the current official cutoff), but I would make that cutoff a bit after 1954...probably 1957.
First, the actual demographic baby boom cuts off sharply right at 1959. The birthrate plunged in 1960, and there's probably an unexplored reason for that.
But a kid who was 2nd or third grade remembers where he was when he heard of JFK's assassination--which I'd consider an event that marks a generational epoch. He may also remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and might even remember something about Eisenhower.
It would seem that us baby boomers are ripe for the pickings. I do admit to it being a bit grandiose but it does seem to fit. We have all heard of our amassed wealth in IRA, SEPs, Keoghs, and 401k that is soon to be unleashed. Some in the stock market fear that day and there are those that are chomping at the bit waiting to prey on us unsuspecting old folks. Then there are the new and old industries that will benefit from the release of that wealth upon the market.
With all this talk of how badly Americans have saved $4.6 trillion that looks to be ready for plucking. Just take a read on this opening paragraph.
It gave me a chuckle thinking that there is a whole industry waiting for me to start spending that hard earned and saved money tucked away in retirement savings.
There is a tremendous amount of wealth among boomers who have it either through their high-earning careers or enterprises, through their investments, and/or through trusts and inheritances. Many inherited the frugally gotten wealth of their parents. It is a huge swath of the population, a fact that could lead one to think that all boomers are wealthy or well-off. An equally large, if not larger swath of the population of boomers is not well-off. It is the sheer numbers of us that can make for some quite false assumptions.
Well after my cursory research, apparently one fifth of the US population falls into this Gen Jones deal (approx. 1954 to 1964 birth years). So we are a force to be reckoned with! And we vote! I want to see some pandering and on the double!
I have posted similar links before. Here is another try. If you have income of 145k at age 70 you are approx the 90th percentile. Meaning 89% make less than you.
I have posted similar links before. Here is another try. If you have income of 145k at age 70 you are approx the 90th percentile. Meaning 89% make less than you.
$120,000 at age 70 puts you in about the 85th percentile
$100,000 at age 70 puts you approx in the 79th percentile
So based on 2015 data if you have family income of $100,000 at age 70 over 20% of people have higher incomes than you.
Just go to the graph and slide the scale for yourself. As noted in the OP a lot of money out there to be captured in the 70 plus market.
Not when you factor in health care costs.
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