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Most of us are aware that there are two types of old these days. There is Baby-Boomer old, an audacious, aspirational sort of old. Common depictions include couples sky-diving for their 40th anniversaries; Richard Branson doing all manner of macho rich-guy nonsense; and the woman of a certain age on a seashore holding a fluttering piece of voile toward the winds of freedom.
Then there is old old, a realm often belonging to the parents of the baby boomers. This is nursing-home old. This is prunes-for-breakfast old. This is “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up” old.
It would be easy to make the mistake of thinking new interest in the aged exists simply because the boomers, still the largest generation in the Western Hemisphere, are now careering into seniorhood. But it’s worth remembering that, notwithstanding their aging, the boomers are still the generation that gave us the famous boardroom credo “Nobody wants to see old people on TV/in the movies/in advertisements.” “The Golden Girls” was what it meant to be acceptably ancient on prime time. Rue McClanahan was a fit 51 when she took the role of Blanche Devereaux on that show.
So it’s not the new old who are driving this fascination. It’s the young.
It is from this cultural interstice that Betty White’s late-career renaissance was made possible. The White phenomenon can be cast largely as a youth-culture one; something that never would have happened if it weren’t for the 2010 Facebook petition, driven by under-30s, asking White to host “Saturday Night Live.” Today White fits in a truly novel category of fame: a giant star with cult cachet among people who could be her great-grandchildren.
The twilight years thus appeal as a time when a kind of paradoxical freedom can be located, a time thought to be beyond the petty concerns of hotness and coolness, where you can finally, truly, really be yourself.
Today, college graduations, weddings, 30th birthday parties, Christenings, brises — these sorts of events are regularly blessed with multiple Grannies, Papas, Yiayias, Zaides, Nanas, Nonnas, Omas, Abuelitos. They stand up; they take bows. In the true fabric of experience, this is not some invisible stitching.
Source: The New York Times Magazine, April 28, 2013
They may have been known as the MTV Generation or sometimes "the slackers," when they first started entering the workforce more than 25 years ago, but members of Generation X (Gen X, those born between 1965 and 1976) are now as affluent, stable and saddled with responsibility as their parents were at the same age.
A new study from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, The MetLife Study of Generation X: The MTV Generation Moves into Mid-Life, reports that 70% of Gen Xers live with a spouse or partner. They have an average of 2.5 children and 82% own their own homes, though 17% of those report that the value of those homes is less than the debt attached to them. Forty-three percent have remained in the same type of career throughout their working years and just more than 40% have been with the same employer for 10 years or more. 75% are working full or part-time. Most are part of a dual-earner household.
Now approaching or in middle age, Gen Xers are part of the sandwich generation because many are caring for both their children and their parents. 10% are grandparents. The economy has not been too tough on the group, now aged 36 to 47. Just 19% earn less than $35,000 per year and fully 29% earn more than $100,000. They are arguably better educated than any generation before them-43% graduated from college. Only 50% say they are behind on their retirement savings; they have relatively high ownership rates of 401K plans (66%).
"The Gen Xers have suffered from the 'Marcia, Marcia, Marcia' syndrome since they've been compared with The Brady Bunch daughter, Jan, the frequently unnoticed middle child," said Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. "Because they followed the Baby Boomers, it took a while for them to make their mark. That was also due to the fact that they're small in number - just 50 million compared to 77 million boomers - and entered the workforce later than their predecessors."
The moniker Generation X originated in the 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland (St. Martin's Press). At the time, the group was perceived as unfocused 20-somethings, lacking drive and taking an extraordinarily long time to grow up. They were the first to be associated with the term, "emerging adulthood" because they were thought to have put off being fully self-sufficient until their late 20s.
The GenXers grew up in the 1980's and 90's listening to Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana. They spent their childhood and adolescence watching MTV and The Cosby Show and, identified with the characters in the movies, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Fully 46% were latch-key children whose parents both went to work.
Other aspects of Generation X revealed in the study include the following:
The majority (63%) of Gen Xers still have both parents living and almost two in 10 regularly provide care for their aging parent(s).
Almost six in 10 Gen Xers report they include exercise in their daily routines.
Approximately 20% have never been married.
70% of Gen Xers are not confident that Social Security will be there to provide benefits when they retire.
Most would like to retire at age 62, but believe working until at least age 67 is inevitable.
Many Gen Xers identify as Baby Boomers.
Two in ten Gen Xers have been married more than once.
On average, Gen Xers own about four financial products, with those in higher income brackets much more likely to own more products.
Methodology
The nationally representative survey for The MetLife Study of Generation X: The MTV Generation Moves into Mid-Life was conducted by GfK Custom Research North America on behalf of the MetLife Mature Market Institute between November 29, 2012 and December 19, 2012. A total of 1,000 interviews were completed by phone - respondents were all born between the years of 1965 and 1976. Data were weighted by demographics to reflect the total Gen X population.
It was only a few months ago -- in a packed ballroom at the world's largest investment conference with attendees on the edge of their seats -- that Prechter overturned several of the most widespread investment myths.
In turn, he provided the evidence-based alternative for market causality.
Only the few hundred people who sat in that room have seen this presentation -- until now.
If you mistrust the conventional notions that markets are always efficient, investors are always rational and prices always reflect value, give Prechter 23 minutes of your time.
In those 23 minutes, you will discover …
How events like 9/11 and the Enron scandal have a relationship to markets that is shockingly different than what you think.
The surprising link between interest rates and stocks.
Inflation and deflation's impact on hard money.
Central bankers' supposed power to turn trends.
What new data says about the long-term viability of investment models based on earnings and value.
And more, including the secret force that drives the decisions of futures traders, investment advisors, money managers, hedge fund managers and economists.
The video is free, and it's just a couple of clicks away. Find a quite location, and watch it now.
About the Publisher, Elliott Wave International Founded in 1979 by Robert R. Prechter Jr., Elliott Wave International (EWI) is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.
Best of Boomer Blogs is a special kind of blog community.
There are many kinds of blogs, and they contain articles on several different topics. Blogging groups typically collect links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. A blogging group is like a special interest magazine. It has a title, a topic that flows through its postings, editors, contributors, and an focused audience. Editions of the blogging group typically come out on a regular basis, like every Monday.
The Best of Boomer Blogsis a collection of like-minded blogs cooperating to expose their best stories of interest to the Baby Boomer Generation. To our knowledge, this group of Blogging Boomers is the oldest, now in its six year and best boomer-centric carnival.
Please check out the 305th edition of this five-year-old-plus group of boomer blogs by going to the Best of Boomer Blogsthat celebrates Spring in the snowy Rockies---hosted by the Midlife Crisis Queen, Laura Lee!
In order to rediscover our natural confidence and live a fearless life, we must examine the challenge: we must "recognize fear."
Fear, for the neurophysiologists, is a stimulus to investigate, discern and resolve. Taking a Buddhist perspective on fear, however, requires that we make a simple, yet somewhat outrageous, observation: fear does not exist. This is not to say we don't experience fear and its many forms. Of course, we are afraid of death and pain, afraid that we can't handle life. We fear new situations and the unknown. Yet, while we may want to define fear, explore fear, and possibly even resolve it, we first must acknowledge that we cannot actually find such a solid thing as "fear" at all.
Our ability to suddenly discover a powerful seat of fearless abundance may not be all that fantastic. In fact, rediscovering this fearless abundance is considered more likely than we think and is traditionally often referred to as "discovering the wish-fulfilling gem." Discovering the gem is said to happen abruptly, like winning a lottery, thus opening up a sudden physical and spiritual energy similar to that of riding a mighty horse. This frees the mind of impoverishment and revels the natural state of fearless abundance.
For many people, being on the far side of 40 in the workplace brings the confidence of experience, of having hit a certain professional stride. It can also bring a nagging insecure feeling that younger colleagues—the ones with 5,000 Twitter followers, who designed their first website in middle school—are fast becoming the new office stars.
SENIOR INITIATIVE: To keep up with his younger colleagues' skills, Doug Gould has taken more than 10 new-technology classes. Gould, a 50-year-old advertising veteran, says some of that anxiety arose when co-workers called him by nicknames like "Uncle Doug" and "Coach."
"I think those were terms of endearment," says Mr. Gould, a creative director for the Boston ad agency Allen & Gerritsen, who started his career back in 1984 using tracing paper and markers to design newspaper ads. "But if you read between the lines, it also meant 'old guy.' I get nervous about what that means."
For many people in the back half of their careers, the meaning is becoming all too clear: To keep from drifting, or being nudged, into an early retirement, it's time to add more high-tech arrows to their professional quiver—to refresh their skills with, say, some social-media or mobile-app expertise. As Mr. Gould has learned, competing with younger colleagues who grew up texting, tweeting, using Facebook and playing videogames requires constant work to stay up-to-date.
Older workers have accumulated knowledge that is hard to replace, research shows. But lagging tech skills are one reason job-loss rates for experienced older workers 55 and over have exceeded those for younger workers by a growing margin for the past decade, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.
It is Friday night at Sneaky Pete's restaurant and bar in Bonita Springs, Fla., and the dance floor is jammed.
A band called The Hype is blasting "Mustang Sally" and "Louie Louie," and the dancers are singing along, hands in the air, booties shaking, bodies sweating.
Almost all are well over 60. Some are past 70. They dance for hours.
It is well known that Florida retirees play golf, sit on the beach and occasionally use walkers. They also rock out by the thousands at South Florida bars, looking for romance or just having fun.
Not all Florida retirees go dancing, of course, but with baby boomers retiring, crowds are getting big.
Some are singles doing things they haven't done since high school, this time without parental guidance. Some women show up in slinky black dresses, sequins and plunging necklines, although many others are in pants. Men lean toward T-shirts, Aloha shirts, shorts and jeans. To attract older dancers, some clubs offer music at 6 p.m. or earlier and advertise early-bird dinners.
Dancing is good for older people's health and balance, studies show, especially salsa, says Timothy Dougherty, medical director of the emergency department at nearby Cape Coral Hospital. Still, in the past two or three years he has treated a growing number of older people for heart attacks suffered while dancing. Two or three couldn't be saved, he says.
Baby Boomerscontinue to personally evolve; setting new trends along their wake as they plow through Spring 2013.
This Best of Boomer Blogs, the 305th of the series, is just a small piece of the microcosm series that was developed to record the boomer generation's evolution. Come to the fair and observe interesting segments of trend-setting happenings that seek life's meaning through passionate living:
Here are a few secrets that boomers don't want you to know about:
Boomers might be in denial that they are getting older. They are staying younger longer, but time still marches on. No matter how many vitamins, health regimes, even facelifts you have, we all age.
Boomers still long for the 'simpler' times of their youth.
They don't want to admit that they are terrified of high technology, or even low technology. Many boomers have classic technophobia. They would almost rather cut off their right arm than learn how anything online functions. Truth be told, most boomers have their kids or grandkids set up their iPhones, iPads or Android systems.
Boomers are relying on the millennial generation/Gen Y for virtual direction. Although boomers are quickly learning the Internet, there are many who are still very intimidated.
Boomers are running out of money.Sad, but true. A lot of boomers thought that life was always going to be good and therefore they never set aside savings or learned how to invest.
Boomers are really into health and fitness. The world of health and fitness is taking on a whole new light. Since the 1970s, the public's interest in health and wellness has soared to become a multi-billion dollar industry. The supplement and pharmaceutical field has exploded. New vitamin stores are popping up all over the place. Most of their clients are the aging Baby Boomers.
Boomers will pay top dollar for most products. They want the best and they want it now. Boomers feel special to begin with and they love top quality.
The boomers just keep on living and enjoying life according to "Guerrilla Marketing to Baby Boomers" by authors Jay Kevinson and Kristi Carter.
There are two generations of Baby Boomers, early and late.
The early generations of baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1955, are now "empty nesters" with adult children. Their spending priorities have changed from spending money on children's upkeep and education to upgrading their homes, clothing, travel and funding their retirement accounts. This group travels the most to see their grandchildren or to have adventures all over the world. The early boomers join country clubs, tennis and golf clubs, gardening clubs and participate in community activities.
The early boomers spend a little differently than the late Baby Boomers who were born between 1955 to 1964. More of their disposable income is still going to their children's education. When their children start to have families of their own, the late boomers join the ranks of disposable-income spending just as the early boomers.
Once a boomer, always a boomer continues. You can take the boomer out of the nostalgic decades, but you can't take the nostalgia out of the boomer. Their mentality is an optimistic, tackle-the-world and live-well attitude. Life is full of so many options for the boomers. Second or third careers have become appealing to the boomers.
The Best of Boomer Bloggers illustrate some of the options boomers have as they continue to live and learn well:
Tom Sightings has been struggling through a blizzard of tax forms for the past couple of weeks, and now offers some financial wisdom in his latest post 10 Lessons You Learn from Doing Your Own Taxes.
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