Maybe Whining Boomers Have a Reason to Complain

We promised we'd weigh in on the recent Boomer-basing articles referencing various research studies about the unhappiness of Boomers.

We did so in our twice monthly Op/Ed column "Viva the Vital." You can read the piece here.

In it, you'll note, we reference "gen-ism," or bias and stereotyping based on one's generational cohort. That concept and term comes from Brent Green, author of Marketing to Leading Edge Boomers and a man on a mission to stamp out ageism and genism.

Brent has a blog worth a read.

Tell us your opinion about generational bias. Send in a comment.

New Retirement Research (No, This isn't a Repeat)

This time the study is across all generations, sponsored by Charles Schwab, the financial giant, and conducted by Ken Dychtwald's Age Wave and Harris Interactive.

Called "Rethinking Retirement," it provides a comprehensive look at how all four generations -- Silent, Boomers, Generation X and Gen Y -- think and feel about "retirement."

The Web site and information in the report are very well presented and informative. But at first glance, it feels like more of the same (even if it isn't).

Over the last few years we've been telling financial services clients that consumers of all ages no longer view "retirement" as an event of short duration (10-15 years), funded by others (company pensions and Social Security). Instead, consumers today see "retirement" as a life stage lasting 25-30 years and primarily funded out of their own savings (or continuing income).

To us, then, this "rethinking retirement" isn't news at all. But there is some news in their findings. For example, the Schwab study reports that most people think "old age" begins at age 75. That ground has been covered elsewhere. But interestingly, the study asks at what age one should be able to start getting money from Social Security, and consumers say that age is much, much younger than "old age" -- it is 63. The conclusion, mentioned almost in passing, is that today consumers think the "old age" benefit of Social Security is an entitlement due 12 years before you get to "old age."

That's a key finding to us. In fact, we suspect it will be the lead in most stories about the study, if reporters are on their game. One would think that such a finding might empower politicians to address Social Security. We wish Schwab had come down hard on this particular point. It's an opportunity to get action, and it's been underplayed so far.

One aspect of the Schwab study and the Web site that we like: They are trying to move beyond reporting on research to focus now on what to do.

Chuck Schwab and daughter Carrie Schwab Pomerantz have a section on the site where they comment on the study, and the need to provide more financial literacy education in schools, as well as change the financial services industry.

These are good steps, and we encourage Schwab to keep pushing for more steps.

Our belief is that research is only good if it leads to action. Let's hope this study generates some.

When "We" Boomers are "They"

Today in The New York Times, columnist David Brooks writes about "The Great Seduction." Money. Wealth. Debt. He writes:

The United States has been an affluent nation since its founding. But the country was, by and large, not corrupted by wealth. For centuries, it remained industrious, ambitious and frugal.

Over the past 30 years, much of that has been shredded. The social norms and institutions that encouraged frugality and spending what you earn have been undermined. The institutions that encourage debt and living for the moment have been strengthened. The country’s moral guardians are forever looking for decadence out of Hollywood and reality TV. But the most rampant decadence today is financial decadence, the trampling of decent norms about how to use and harness money.

Brooks cites a new report by the Institute for American Values and other think tanks called, “For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture.” He points out that our debt culture has made millions for many, and made the less fortunate more vulnerable.

Social norms, the invisible threads that guide behavior, have deteriorated. Over the past years, Americans have been more socially conscious about protecting the environment and inhaling tobacco. They have become less socially conscious about money and debt.

Blame gets placed just about everywhere: the federal government, Congress, the White House, state governments (lotteries), payday lenders, credit card companies, Wall Street and so on. Brooks also points readers to another article, "A Nation in Debt" by Barbara Whitehead, that summarizes the report.

What strikes us in all this is the people in charge of all of those institutions over the last 30 years haven't been Boomers. But "we" Boomers are now considered the "they" running all of those institutions now. It's going to be up to us to fix these things.

Unfortunately, our track record to date has been poor. Fareed Zakaria, an author and editor for Newsweek, in a story about "Getting Back to Growth" quotes David Gergen:

“With the end of the cold war, we saw a new, destructive kind of partisanship,” says David Gergen, who has worked in Republican and Democratic White Houses. “And for much of the past decade, we’ve kicked the can down the road on our big problems.”

Some of this is because of the narrowcasting of American politics, a process in which the extreme ends of the spectrum have been magnified and the center gets lost. Part of it, Gergen argues, is generational. “I have a distinct memory that the World War II generation really put country ahead of party. That is simply not the case with the generation in power now."

He's talking about Boomers. So are we going to do anything about it, or simple move aside?

Raising the Next Generation

For most Boomers, the task of raising kids is nearing the last phases. The majority of Generation Y were born to Boomers, and the next generation, those under the age of 7, which have yet to be named (appropriately, it's too early to label them), are being raised by Gen Xers.

If you're a Boomer, perhaps you've heard of the term "helicopter parent," a term that describes those over-anxious parents (Boomers) who literally hover over their kids at every step of life, from the first one to the most recent one into their first post-college job. The worst kind are called "Blackhawk helicopter parents."

Finally, there is some backlash to this style of co-dependent parenting. Lenore Skenazy, an op/ed columnist for The New York Sun, has launched Free Range Kids, a blog designed to free parents and kids from paranoia. Read the "For or Against" section for horror stories about over-protective parents.

It started with a column in which she shared a story about recently allowing her 9-year-old to ride home on the subway in New York all alone. Before she knew it, she had been labeled "America's Worst Mom."

She retaliated with this brilliant piece on parenting and paranoia.

We're not going to take sides in the argument. But in our work we have seen and studied the impact of parenting decisions on each generation. Boomers were raised by parents filling new homes in new suburbias across the country with modern electronic appliances paid for with newfangled credit cards in the 1950's and early 60's. The result: we're a generation of adults all about instant personal gratification. We're spenders not savers.

Gen Xers were raised by dual income, or single parents, and were the latchkey kids of the 1970's and 80's. Now, they are independent, self-sufficient adults.

Gen Y's had parents who told them they're "special" and give them full credit for just showing up: Remember youth soccer? Most programs don't keep score; everyone participates equally and gets a trophy at the end of the season. No actual performance required. Now those Gen Y's are young adults entering the workforce and looking for credit for just showing up.

Now we have the next generation being raised under a cloud of paranoia. Wonder how that's going to work out.

We Boomers remember the Kinks' Destroyer, which reminds us "Paranoia, will destroy ya."

Generational Touchstones

As we've mentioned, we write a bi-weekly op/ed column for Media General's Richmond Times-Dispatch. It's called "Viva the Vital" and is a series about issues facing Boomers.

This week's column addresses the events that shape each generation, and specifically is about the impact of last year's massacre at Virginia Tech might have on the Millennial generation.

You can read it online.

Or download a PDF of it.

We've gotten an interesting amount of feedback about it. Let us know what you think.