|
|
NEWS
Believe This If You Want To
Baby boomers like
chocolate
more than sex, according to a new survey.
Meanwhile, Newsweek's Robert J. Samuelson
writes
that:
The baby-boomer generation is in a state of denial about the true cost of
their retirement benefits. Why their blindness on the issue could put the
country's future at risk.
January 11th, 2007
Baby Boomersaurus Spawns the OFFALs
Fun article about
baby boomer mating habits by the always readable Bernard Salt. He
begins:
Come with me, if you dare, to that dark and foreboding jungle that lies
west of the Baby Boomer Mountains.
Then:
Here is a brand new social group known as the OFFALs: old farts finding
another love.
And he concludes:
The point is that the territory beyond 60 remains a New World yet to be
marked and perhaps marred by the baby boomersaurus. We know boomers are more
numerous than any previous inhabitants of this decade.
What we don't know is how this generation will put its stamp on its
language, culture and perhaps even its mating habits.
November 23rd, 2006
Are You Ready for Retirement?
MSN Money carries a lengthy AP report on
money issues for baby boomers as they reach retirement:
Craig Brimhall, vice president for retirement wealth strategies with
Ameriprise Financial, said that boomers face several problems as their
retirement dates approach.
One is how they're going to spend their retirement, and Brimhall believes
it's going to be different from the way their parents and grandparents spent
it. He said Ameriprise Financial about three years ago developed a "Dream
Book" that people can use as a starting point to think about hobbies,
volunteer work, returning to school, traveling and other activities they
might want in retirement.
Then there are the financial questions, such as "I don't know if I'm ready"
or "I don't know if I've accumulated enough" or "I don't know how to take
distributions from my savings account," he said.
"There is a huge gap in understanding because the math changes," Brimhall
said. "The math of accumulating is totally different from the math of
distributing savings over the next 30 years."
November 15th, 2006
Department of Utter Confusion
Companies seem
confused about baby boomers:
Although two-thirds of companies expect baby boomer retirements to have a
measurable impact on their organizations, more than three-fourths of
employers have not yet started planning to deal with how this issue will
affect them, according to ClearRock, an executive coaching and outplacement
firm headquartered in Boston.
Almost half of companies (46%) would like at least 25% of their baby boomers
to continue working past retirement age, but only about one-third (36%)
expect to keep that many on their payrolls, according to the survey of about
100 organizations. The top strategies companies will use to retain at least
some baby boomers past retirement age are through flexible hours and
schedules, part-time positions, and telecommuting.
There is a disconnect between how many organizations want baby boomers to
work past anticipated retirement ages, and how many really expect them to
continue on their payrolls, said Annie Stevens, managing partner for
ClearRock.
November 10th, 2006
Baby Boomer Retirees - Terrific
Expectations But Little Savings
An Australian study paints
a grim picture of baby boomer retirees. I suspect it's similar in North
America.
THE baby boomer retirement shock was not supposed to be this bad. Half of
all women in the boomer generation - those aged 45 to 60 - have just A$8000
[US$6,050] or less saved in superannuation.
If they were relying on men for a comfortable retirement, many will be
disappointed: the average male baby boomer has a relatively modest A$87,000
in super. Half have less than A$30,700.
Research by Simon Kelly from the University of Canberra's National Centre
for Social and Economic Modelling confirms what generations X and Y have
suspected for years: the boomers will not have enough to live in the manner
they are accustomed to.
"The baby boomers have terrific expectations for their retirement but very
little savings apart from their houses," he said. "Most of them are going to
have a fairly modest retirement."
October 24th, 2006
We're Not All Me-Generation People
Baby boomers
aren't always what they seem, says the Baltimore Sun:
They aren't all the upwardly mobile, health-conscious, cosmetically
altered, me-generation people that the media and many advertisers would have
you believe.
For instance:
One-fourth of boomers earn less than $35,000 a year.
Due to the 1965 restructuring of U.S. immigration laws, as many as 15
percent of the country's youngest boomers (1956-1964) were born outside the
United States.
Thirty percent of baby boomers belong to a minority group, due mostly to
the increase in Hispanics and Asians.
Widely depicted as political liberals, members of the baby boom generation
may be remembered more for their role in the "triumph" of the conservatism
that rose to oppose the radicalism of the 1960s, says Vanderbilt University
historian Gary Gerstle. Republicans have won seven of the 10 presidential
elections starting in 1968, when the oldest boomers became eligible to vote
in them. George W. Bush, Karl Rove and many other prominent conservatives
are baby boomers.
October 16th, 2006
Baby Boomer Invasion
Under the headline "The Baby
Boomer Border Invasion", AlterNet writes:
American retirees are taking over Mexico's most beautiful places, driving
up property prices, and wreaking ecological havoc. Is this modern-day
manifest destiny?
September 27th, 2006
Desperate Grandmas
Jennifer Roback Morse writes about ageing baby boomer women and their
attempts to enjoy sex.
Instead of a book called, "Still Doing It," maybe I should write a book
called, "Still Doing It (With the Same Man!)." Or maybe, "Better Than We
Ever Expected," instead of "Better Than I Ever Expected," to indicate that
our sex life is not about me, but about us.
The sexual revolution tried to give us sex without relationship. But sex is
fundamentally relational. No wonder the baby-boomer grandmas are so
desperate.
The generation of twentysomething women has a choice about what path to
follow. Which will it be: Sex without relationship, or lifelong married
love? We baby boomers have made our choices. Now the choice is yours.
September 20th, 2006
Boomer Religion - Changing Us All
Born in affluence, the baby boomers were driven to ask Big Questions
about fulfilment and the meaning of life. How their legacy has changed us.
Newsweek
reports.
September 16th, 2006
Personality and Spirituality - Baby
Boomers Go Online Dating
Baby boomers like
online dating
sites, according to a press release for Beverly Mahone, author of
"Whatever! A Baby Boomer's Journey Into Middle Age."
"My research reveals the fact that over seven million people have used an
on-line dating service," says Ms. Mahone, who adds that as people get older
the qualities they're looking for in a mate changes dramatically.
"Looks and physical appearance used to rank at the top of the list when we
were twenty-something," according to Ms. Mahone, "but at middle age you
realize beauty is only skin deep and there are other important qualities
such as personality, spirituality and goal-oriented interests."
September 6th, 2006
Boomer Round-Up
* Only one in five Massachusetts companies is taking necessary steps to deal
with a
demographic time bomb that will see more than a million area baby
boomers retire in coming years, according to a new study.
* A certain number of recommendations can be made for businesses that wish
to benefit from the market that boomers are creating in
hotel services. These include increased lighting and comfort in hotel
rooms, greeting baby boomer customers with a casual friendliness that makes
them feel at home, and extra services such as off-hour restaurant
facilities, lounges, and sports or spa facilities.
*
Which bank has the most competitive interest rates and the best customer
service?...The bank that leaves all others for dead is Boomer Bank. This
bank's lucky clientele, the children of the baby boomers, Generation Y, can
make withdrawals without having to invest or repay cash.
August 31st, 2006
The World's Youngest Baby Boomer
The BBC interviews one of the
world's youngest
baby boomers, born in Hawaii on the evening of December 31, 1964.
While the first baby boomers contemplate their imminent retirement,
Carlos is running a busy guitar shop catering for the islands' many
musicians.
Aged 41, he is married with an 18-month-old daughter, Phoebe, and devotes
much of his spare time to his family, church band and trips to the beach.
As for being the last of a generation? Well, having a birthday on New Year's
Eve in fun-loving Hawaii has its advantages.
"It's cool," Carlos says. "Everybody's happy and partying and loving life -
and I can say 'it's my birthday today'."
August 21st, 2006
Baby Boomer Death Clock
Here's something new - the Baby
Boomer Death Clock. It tells the percentage of baby boomers who are dead
(6.5% when I looked), the number of boomers left alive, how many seconds
until the next boomer dies (58.3) and the number of boomers who died in the
previous 24 hours.
August 15th, 2006
Time to Grow Up
Baby boomer feminists say they want sex and self-actualization, new freedoms
and 'Second Adulthoods.' They also might want to consider growing up.
Kay S. Hymowitz writes (at length) about
baby boomer women.
August 7th, 2006
|
|
