Retirement vs. Re-Tyrement

The first Baby Boomers will turn sixty this year and they will do what no other generation has done before them: Re-tyre.

There are a number of factors that are already causing futurists to look at the effects of this upcoming change. Many predict that it will bring about a societal change of Tsunami-like proportions. In America, 70 million Boomers will retire over the next twenty years. One of the factors that have changed the Boomer world is medical science. Many more people are living much longer. The generation behind the Boomers, the Xers, are not as large in number as their predecessors. In the States there are approximately 46 million in Generation X – 35% less than the Boomers.

These low numbers are causing much concern amongst actuaries who are trying to balance the pension fund cash flows of major corporations. Many Boomers have spent most of their work life at one company thus their pension fund has been the main focus of their retirement funding. As corporations have merged and been bought out, people have been retrenched or shifted. Many may have been retrenched early or will be surprised in the near future by such a change. These employment concerns have seen the Boomer generation looking at their future through new eyes. Watching their parents and older peers’ mode of retirement has also had a dramatic impact on their perception of the retirement life stage.

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Golden Gadgets

I have just read this article from Time Magazine. Read it here.
As technology improves so do the gadgets that will assist people to live life. Read this list to see what awaits the AGING BOOMERS in the future.

Newsweek’s Boomer Files

I have just stumbled on possibly the most comprehensive Boomer website I have yet seen. Its hosted by Newsweek, and seems to contain a complete archive of all the stuff they’ve ever done on Boomers (and they’ve done a lot!!). You can find the “Boomer Files” here.

The site has indepth reporting, fun quizzes and lots more.

Investigate how Boomers have impacted everything from music to spirituality, from business to politics. The only downside is that it is very American-centric.

Resentment in the wake of Affirmative Action

There is a unique situation in South Africa as the white Baby Boomer generation head towards retirement in the next few years.

Instead of wanting to leave a legacy behind them (which is probably the global Boomer desire), South African white Boomers just can’t wait to get the hell out of the organisations that have sidelined them over the last 15 years in the wake of Affirmative Action and Empowerment policies. This is a precarious position as businesses begin to realise that there are not enough Xers to replace them and they run the risk of losing core skills, experience and wisdom. This risk is compounded by the reluctance to engage in transferring their wisdom prior to leaving the organisation.

It was a telling moment when sitting with a client in the electricity industry yesterday who told me directly that we won’t get anything out of these guys – in terms of transferring their wisdom to younger employees – until someone from the organisation stands up and says, “Guys, we’re sorry … we’ve f&*ked this Affirmative Action thing up and messed you around”.

I wonder if the Corporate Ego will allow this to happen?

The Million Dollar Question- Retire early or later ???????

I came across a great site today which I think will make everyone envious. Billy and Akaisha Kaderli decided to retire at age 38. They have been travelling and enjoying life for the past 16 years and still managed to retain investments. They have written a book available online or on CD called ” The Adventure Guide to Early Retirement ” . Here is an extract from their profile:

There were many interests to pursue while still mentally and physically flexible. A few of these choices were global travel, foreign cuisine, native people’s artwork and customs. Journaling and photographing these travels from a unique perspective made it easier to remain in touch with family and friends.

We want to emphasize that no one knows what the future will bring. There are many ways to live a life, so make the most of it! Our advice to you is: Follow your dreams!

Go to their site for more details :http://www.retireearlylifestyle.com/

The Silver Ceiling

William Dietrich of “The Seatltle Times” wrote about “Retirement? Not this generation” on 22 October 2006. I like his style and alhough he says nothing we haven’t said, I like the way he says it:

The problem some baby boomers have with impending retirement is the problem the unchurched have with the afterlife: Hell looks like more fun.

Who wants to sit on a cloud in a robe playing a harp for eternity, when the bad people below get to run around naked and play mischief?

Similarly, how many games of golf can you play or fishing holes can you plumb before repetition begins to make it seem like … work? Especially when the geezers who stay on the job have more money, dine out, go on cool vacations and kick more butt?

Retire? Can’t afford to. Don’t want to. Don’t need to. And the 76 million baby boomers, the first of whom hit 60 this year, expect medical science to keep them wheezing forever.

Which means, sorry, Generations X, Y and Z.

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The Aging Population: The Impact on the U.S. Real Estate Market

This was the title of a recent Deloitte’s conference. A report from MarketWatch can be found here. The focus was on trying to understand the impact of the Boomer generation on the real estate markets over the next few years.

“Don’t call them aging, don’t call them seniors and certainly don’t offer them early-bird specials,” said Neale Redington, national director of hospitality practice at Deloitte & Touche LLP. They don’t like it, he said. For good reason.

After all, this is a generation that expects to work past the traditional retirement age, said Paul D. Prescott, the national director for Deloitte Tax LLP’s home-building sector. It’s also a generation with active, healthy lifestyles that are in turn helping them live longer.

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Succession Planning for owner-managers

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 534 businesses in Canada found that 45% said they didn’t have succession plans. Of these, 90% were family-owned businesses. This is a disturbing finding, as only 16% said they had a plan ready to replace their top managers, but more than half the companies surveyed indicated their managers planned to retire in the next five years.

Many different research projects around the world have shown that about 70% of family businesses do not make it to the second generation, while only one out of 10 are still being run by a third-generation family member. While a lack of succession planning is not new, the world could face a crisis as baby-boomer business owners begin to retire.

There are many different ways to handle succession planning, and some specific, proven strategies to do so within a family-owned business. Whichever method is selected, the message is clear: the Boomers are not going to around forever, and they need to start putting a plan in place for their succession. We believe that we have created a fantastic approach – you can read more about it at http://www.tomorrowwisdom.biz.

Older workers

A study by Georgetown University released last spring showed the number of men (in the USA) who worked past age 70 increased 17% between 1995 and 2005 and the number of working women after 70 was up 32%. Mandatory retirement for most ended with the Age Discrimination Act of 1986. Since then, anxieties about dwindling Social Security benefits and diminished health coverage played a role in a greater number of elderly Americans who work full-time, according to the study by Murray Gendell. Similar legislation is about to enacted in the UK, and should have a similar effect.

Older workers indicate that it is a combination of necessity and love of work that keeps them going well beyond reitrement age.

“People are living longer and healthier lives and many want to continue working well beyond traditional retirement age,” said a spokesman for the AARP (American Association of Retired People – a formidable political force in the USA). “And with reduced birth rates, longer life expectancy and the aging of the baby boomer generation, the ability to attract and retain skilled older workers is going to be critical to the work force.”

The Impact of Retiring Boomers hits every industry

Every day, more and more articles appear in the world’s media, predicting calamity on the horizon as Baby Boomers grow older and prepare to retire and leave their current employment. This includes industries as diverse as trucking and car mechanics, to church leadership / priests, pilots and engineers. (PS – follow the links to these stories – some good reading).

At TomorrowToday.biz, we’ve started the process of trying to come up with solutions for this coming crisis. We have branded our work, TomorrowWisdom, and currently have three major focus areas: (1) a presentation called “Prime Time” that looks at three options for Boomers as they look to the future; (2) a Wisdom Continuity process, to assist companies extract critical information from the Boomers and embed it in their companies; and (3) personal, individual assistance for retiring Boomers.

The Coming Car Crisis

There are more and more cars on the road, and the complexity of these cars is ever increasing. Who is going to service them? Who is going to fix them when they break? Already, you have to book a few weeks in advance to get your upper-end car in for its regular service. And the quality of the servicing leaves something to be desired. This is a worldwide problem, as a report in “Tire Review online” suggests. Its in the 11 Sep 2006 edition, and is entitled: “Shops in Crisis? The Tech Shortage”, by Steve LaFerre. Read the report here.

Some extracts appear below, and you will see my interest in the matter, as it relates to generational perceptions of the automotive industry, engineering and mechanics as well as the need for knowledge/wisdom continuity from the soon to retire Boomers. If this isn’t dealt with, we’re going to see a trainwreck in this industry in a few years time.

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Will I retire like my parents?

Lynda Smith, trained Retirement Coach and Wisdom Continuity expert, shares some insights into the options facing those who will reach retirement age in the next 10 years. Its fairly clear that this generation of retirees are not going to give up work completely and disappear to the coast or golf courses. But what options do they have?

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Japanese Boomers are starting to get stylish

A week ago I was asked a question in the UK: “Does Japan exhibit generational characteristics”. A quick search on Google and this blog will indicate that the answer is YES. Especially when talking about Gen Xers and Millennial kids. However, there has often been a question mark about the Boomers – born post World War II and into the 1950s and 60s. That generation of Japanese workers still seems to have been ingrained with the work culture of the grey-business-suit, system-will-provide, company-for-life mentality that has served Japan so well and made it a dominant world force.

Fortuituously, I ran across a report in the New Zealand Herald that talked of this Japanese Boom Generation. You see, just like their global contemporaries, they are facing retirement soon. And, there is more than a sniff of a chance that the system will NOT provide after all. They’ve also had nearly two decades now of realising that their companies are NOT going to keep them for life. And just like all people in their 50s, their thoughts are shifting to “what is my legacy?”. All of these factors, and more, are causing classic Boomer behaviours to manifest – even in Japan.

Read the report about “Stylish granddads rewrite dress rules” here.
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The Pension Crisis in America (and elsewhere)

I was working through some archives recently, and rediscovered this gem by Thomas Friedman (now famous for “The World is Flat”), written during campaigning for the last US presidential elections:

Sometimes it’s useful to stand back and ask yourself: If I could vote for anyone for president other than George W. Bush or John Kerry, whom would I choose? I’d choose Bill Cosby – on the condition that he would talk as bluntly to white parents and kids about what they need to do if they want to succeed as he did to black kids and parents a few months ago.

The one thing that has gone totally missing, not only from this election, but from American politics, is national leaders who are actually ready to level with the public and even criticize their own constituencies. The columnist Michael Kinsley once observed that in American politics “a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.” We could use a few really big gaffes right now. Because we have not one, but three baby booms bearing down at us, and without a massive injection of truth-telling they could all explode on the next president’s watch.
The leading edge of the American baby boom generation is now just two presidential terms away from claiming its Social Security and Medicare benefits. “With unfunded entitlement liabilities at $74 trillion in today’s dollars – an amount far exceeding the net worth of our entire national economy – and with payroll taxes needing to double to cover the projected costs of Social Security and Medicare, how can any serious person not call entitlement reform the transcendent domestic policy issue of our era?” asks former Commerce Secretary Peter G. Peterson, whose book on this subject, “Running on Empty,” provides a blueprint for a bipartisan solution to this problem for any president daring to lead.

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Proof that the Boomers still rule the world

Just in case you still needed proof that Boomers are not just going to slip into retirement quietly, proof comes from the world of Hollywood. A flurry of movies is expected over the next few months – all of them remakes of classic Boomer TV shows. Right now on circuit, we have “Miami Vice“, but expect “The A-team” (2006), “Dallas” (2007), “Magnum PI” (2007), and “Knight Rider” (2008) to hit the circuits soon.

Personally, I can think of nothing worse, and this is proof that Hollywood is running out of ideas. But feeding the Boomer machine will make money, so expect more of this kind of quasi-nostalgia from every industry…

Aging/ Workforce Equation

In an article I read to day there is an equation used to try and predict what your domestic workforce equation looks like.
The report offers the Aging/Work force Equation: global aging + country/region factors + policy levers + wildcards = work force outcomes.
They also offer 7 implications relating to this scenario.

Domestic supplies of labor will decline.
o Aging will “double whammy” the high-skilled worker supply.
o The global “Battle for Talent” will intensify.
o Indigenous supply of low-skilled workers will decrease.
o Manufacturing firms locate where there are less labor shortages.
o Globalization of human resources.
o Efforts to substitute capital and technology for labor.
Read the complete article here: http://www.salemnews.net/news/story/0723202006_new07brownfield.asp

Boomer Women, Grandmas and Second Wave Feminism

It was the Baby Boomer women that fuelled the feminist revolution of the 1960s and 70s. Their focus may have shifted, but they’re still revolutionaries. Kay S. Hymowitz writes an excellent piece in the City Journal of the Manhattan Institute (read the very long piece here). Some selected quotes:

Boomers—especially feminist-influenced women of a certain class who are now publishing their philosophy of life after 50—will not be growing old. … They’re busy, busy, busy! They go to the gym! They work in animal shelters! They travel! They get divorced! And yes (Yes! Yes!), they have orgasms!

Not so long ago, enlightened women of the boomer generation were known for worrying about equal rights, equal pay, Roe v. Wade, Title IX, and the location of the Masters Golf Tournament. Today, not so much. As they shuffle off into their golden years, many appear to be turning inward. As the title of a catalog that arrived in my mailbox recently put it, they want “Time for Me”—time that appears to involve a lot of anti-aging formulas, herbal supplements, figure-shaping undergarments, and vibrators. Don’t get me wrong. Boomer fems continue to be enemies of the patriarchy. They still want men to do the laundry. Their tone remains defiant. But their personal is no longer very political; even their political isn’t very political. Nobody’s putting it this way, but it seems that liberation politics have become irrelevant to what is now their most pressing concern, which—depending on your emphasis—is: how to bring meaning to their dwindling years, or how to avoid being mistaken for their grandmothers.

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Gearing up for more than 25 years in Retirement. Are you ready ?

As Boomers approach 60 years of age many are asking the question. Who am I and what am I going to do with the remainer of my life ?
In the USA there are many tools apprearing on the market to help individuals assess their current status and then work with a coach to plan a strategy for the future.
TomorrowWisdom is able to offer this service currently in South Africa. Read more about the global review here: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_30/b3994402.htm

From Generation X to baby boomers – why more mature audiences are flocking to the cinema

By Nick Roddick, in the Scotsman – read it here.

NEXT time you go to the movies, ask yourself the following questions. Does the cinema have (a) a bar that wouldn’t look out of place in a posh hotel, or (b) an easy-wipe counter with hot-dog and popcorn machines? Is there (a) lots of glass, chrome and recessed lighting, or (b) miles of stained carpet beneath acres of polystyrene roof panels? And, finally, do your fellow movie-goers look (a) as if they’ve just left a Virgin Megastore with an armful of classic rock albums, or (b) like all their music comes from downloads?

If the answer to all questions is a, then welcome to the world of the MBA – the Movie Buff Adult, the fastest-growing section of the cinemagoing audience.

The Hollywood trade paper Variety recently noted a major surge in the number of 40 to 60-year-olds going to the cinema. But Michael Barker of Sony Pictures Classics thinks Variety is understating things: “I’d say 40 and upwards – no upper limit,” he insists. “Senior citizens are now going back to the movies in big numbers.”

Geoff Gilmore, the director of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, agrees. “These are the people who have made our kind of movies possible,” he says.

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Getting your share of the Boomer Retyrement Market

From The Australian newspaper, 12 July, 2006. “Sharing in the baby boomer bonanza: One can take stock and cash in on the affluence of this group” by James Dunn:

THE transition of Australia’s baby boomers into retirement is not only a demographic phenomenon, it is also an economic one. The cashed-up boomers will be the most affluent generation yet to retire.

Profiting from a demographic is easier said than done, but there are pointers for share market investors. KPMG demographer Bernard Salt says the 4.1 million baby boomers [in Australia] approaching retirement will be “rapacious consumers”. ….

Share investors wishing to benefit from the baby boomer demographic usually look to the obvious candidates – health care, private hospital and retirement village stocks. But if the baby boomers are also going to be big spenders on lifestyle, a wide range of industries should also benefit….

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More than 10 Top 40 companies have CEO’s leaving their organisations over past 18 months

Fifteen percent of the CEO’s of the worlds biggest 2500 firms left their jobs in 2005 — a sharp increase on 2004 and 70 percent more than a decade ago. More than a third of those were relieved of their duties due to under-performance, some quit simply because they couldn’t take the pace and others reached mandatory retirement age. In many cases they would have been relieved. Being CEO of a top company may be financially rewarding but it’s increasingly demanding and many are bowing out.

The stats for the JSE are even higher with at least ten of South Africa’s 40 biggest companies changing CEO in the past 18 months, with retirements, resignations and sackings all prevalent in the local market. This is an extract from an article by Bruce Whitfield in Business.iafrica.com. read it here.http://business.iafrica.com/opinion/662457.htm

Technology Needs for Aging Boomers

An excellent article with a range of Technology opportunities that will open up as Boomers age.

Policymakers must now go beyond discussions of health and economic security to anticipate the aging boom and the role of technology in responding to the needs of an aging society. They must craft policies that will spur innovation, encourage business investment, and rapidly commercialize technology-based products and services that will promote well-being, facilitate independence, and support caregivers. Read more at http://issues.org/16.1/coughlin.htm

Innovation and Old Age combine in The Purpose Prize

“Civic Ventures, a think tank and program incubator helping society achieve the greatest return on experience, announced 15 finalists for its first-ever Purpose Prize, a major new initiative to invest in Americans over 60 who are leading a new age of social innovation. The finalists – including a social worker, former mayor, farmer and car salesman – reveal the wide variety of backgrounds and experiences that those over 60 bring to the task of solving some of society’s most pressing problems in what used to be called the retirement years.”

“As the first of America’s 77 million baby boomers turn 60 this year, The Purpose Prize finalists are doing what society least expects people over 60 to do: innovate,” said Marc Freedman, founder and President of Civic Ventures. “These men and women – some national figures, some local heroes – disprove the assumption that innovation is the province of the young and show us the essence of what’s possible in an aging society…. More than just a set of hands, today’s boomers and older Americans represent an extraordinary pool of social and human capital. These inspiring innovators will show that investing in social entrepreneurs in the second half of life yields unprecedented returns for society.”

The Purpose Prize will award each finalist at least $10,000 (there are 15 of them). In addition, five finalists will win $100,000 each in September.

For a summary of the nominees’ efforts, click here.

Ageing Gracefully – not likely

From the SeniorJournal.com (Nov 2005):

Australian society’s obsession with looking younger is set to collide with the reality of aging, a University of Queensland researcher warns. The current fixation with trying to postpone aging is increasing and the current senior citizens may be the last to age gracefully, says researcher Mair Underwood, who will present her study at the Emerging Researchers in Ageing (ERA) 2005 conference in Brisbane (Nov 2005).

“There is more and more emphasis being placed on postponing and reversing signs of aging and we are increasingly being given the means to look younger, with options such as cosmetic surgery and botox,” Underwood said.

“If the appearance of aging is starting to be thought of as ‘a choice’, how will those who look ‘old’ be regarded? Will they be considered failures? We already stigmatise those who are ‘fat’ because we consider the condition of their body to be their responsibility. Will this also be the case with the appearance of aging?”

Underwood’s PhD study on how people of different ages feel about, and understand their bodies indicated that baby boomers were at the forefront of the anti-aging movement. The sheer numbers of this group will result in the doubling of the population over 65 by 2051, so coping with aging will become an important issue.

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Catch the moment – Thanks for the opportunity Vicky

Rumour has it that one of our BOOMER sales people enjoyed the opening music of our newest presentation, PRIME TIME.

Caught this moment in the middle of our sales team meeting this past week.

Watch this space. This presentation is going to have the BOOMERS ROCKING.

Pension ‘beast’ continues to growl

TomorrowToday.biz keeps warning Boomers about the oncoming issues related to their retirement. Its going to be a tough one, and many Boomers are likely to keep their heads in the sand for too long. The problem is that Boomers are an idealistic bunch. And, they’ve largely been working to a script throughout their lives: “Get a good job in a big company (or make a big company yourself), keep your head down, work hard (mortgage your family and your work life balance), and when you hit your 60s, there will be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy the ‘Golden Years’”.

But, it isn’t going to be so.

Only 7% of people can financially afford to retire and keep their current lifestyle. And that’s assuming their pension payouts were not linked to a scheme that goes bankrupt, does an Enron, or simply reneges on its duties. This last is likely to happen in North America, which has over promised its Boomers in a big way.

Another story came to my attention from this frontline yesterday. Nortel announced plans to eliminate 1,900 jobs. It will also switch to a defined contribution pension plan from defined benefit and scrap retiree health benefits for those not yet 50 with five years of service on July 1. Also yesterday, Ontario Teachers said it will increase its pension contribution rates to 11% of earnings from 8% by 2009 in a bid to cut its pension shortfall. In the United States, about 2,700 of the 29,000 private-sector defined-benefit plans were frozen by 2003.

So, says Jacqueline Thorpe, of the Financial Post of Canada, “if your job isn’t being outsourced, your health benefits are getting cut and a guaranteed pension upon retirement is becoming a faded dream. Younger workers, meanwhile, are being asked to carry an ever-increasing cost for the swelling rank of retirees.” Read her full article here (its worth it!!).

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China’s Burning

The NY Timesreports today that as China ages, a shortage of cheap labour looms (free registration required). Since the 1950s, China has held a competitive labour differentiator based on Mao’s encouraged population explosions. However, shortly after Mao died, a one-child per family policy was adopted. Today China stands to lose its prized labour position to countries like Bangladesh, India and Vietnam as a significantly sized workforce a) does not have the masses to be replaced, and b) are being replaced by young highly educated and empowered people who are not cheap.

From the article, “As workers become scarcer and more expensive in the increasingly affluent cities along China’s eastern seaboard, the country will face growing economic pressures to move out of assembly work and other labor-intensive manufacturing, which will be taken up by poorer economies in Asia and beyond, and into service and information-based industries.”

Dutch Cabinet want to abolish the compulsory retirement age of 65 for civil servants

This article was shared with me today and was extracted from IPE.com, Investments and Pensions, Europe. The Dutch are always known for their progressive thinking on key issues relating to society. They must be feeling the pain and now have decided to address the issue. This could be the start of other governments addressing this issue that will have major impacts on society at large.

- The Dutch cabinet want to abolish the compulsory retirement age of 65 for civil servants, in order to encourage employees to working longer, it said. The decision is part of a package to stimulate all workers older than 55 to keep active as long as possible. The cabinet will actively inform employers, employees and companys personnel departments on the legal possibilities of carrying on working. At the moment, there are hardly any legal restrictions for non-civil servants to continuing a career beyond 65, if both the worker and his employer share this wish, the ministry of Social Affairs indicated. However, there are many cultural obstructions, e.g. a negative image, because many people think over 65s shouldnt work. The cabinet also said it will investigate if the compulsory salary pay-out during two years of illness for workers can be limited for over 65s. This is a response to the oft-cited objection to the obligation by employers. The announced information campaign will focus on the legal position of workers of over 65. Both employers and workers must think of different conditions, and a more tailor-made contract, the ministry explained. The governments efforts to increase labour participation should however prioritise the age group of 55 to 65, the cabinet stressed. This partly as a stimulus for over 65s to keep on working. For the next five years a growing labour participation of the age group of 60 to 64 is crucial, it added. The cabinet said there is no indication that increased numbers of over 65s will substantially compete with younger employees. It also stated that it is opposed to individuals deciding at which age their state pension AOW now at 65 will start. According to the cabinet, an increasing number of elderly wish to continue working after 65. In 2004, 83,000 over 65s mainly self-employed workers, migrants and women returners – were working beyond their official retirement age. The Netherlands is one of the EU countries with the highest labour participation of men under 60. The official retirement age is 65, but the effective retirement age is 61 on average.

Business Continuity in Age of Constant Change

Conversations about knowledge continuity often relate to succession planning and the retirement of key older leaders. While these considerations are obviously important, they can mask the fact that, these days, business critical expertise and knowledge often reside lower down in the organisation and with younger employees. And when these younger people leave, they can threaten the life of the business itself. New thinking and strategies are required to ensure that businesses find out who knows what, understand how they know, create processes for transferring what they know, develop communities rather than stars and secure their future success by enabling business continuity.

For the past few decades this function has largely been delegated to ‘Knowledge Management’ (KM), who in turn thought of it primarily as a technology solution. The amount of raw information that has been captured but not properly utilised or transferred into companies is frightening (and, very often, overwhelming and confusing, and therefore fairly useless). It is time to move beyond KM to ‘Wisdom Management’. Wisdom is knowledge that is not time-bound or linked to specific experiences. Rather, it is transferable and has the ability to be used, adapted and applied wherever it is needed.

The problem is that wisdom can’t be bought. It takes time. Or does it?

We live in a world of constant change. In particular, the last decade has seen a dramatic increase in staff turnover and voluntary employee churn. This has been driven mainly by a younger generation who tend to move every three years on average – and move not just within industries, but to entirely different careers, on a regular basis.

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The Impact of Retiring Boomers

For a few years now, Robert Kiyosaki (and many futurists and economists), have been predicting that when the Baby Boomers start to access their retirements funds, there will be a huge impact on the financial markets. Right now, Boomers are in more debt than any generation has ever been. But they also have more funds under management in retirement savings than ever before. This will create an interesting economic future.

I picked the following up off a Finnish (I think) website:

More than 76.1 million Americans were born between 1946 and 1964. Sociologists have defined those born during that period as “Baby Boomers.” Boomers are now between 40 and 58 years old. The vast numbers of Baby Boomers flooded the job market in the 1970’s. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, Boomers have had an insatiable appetite for investments and the stock market benefited from massive capital inflows.

In the next few years, scores of Baby Boomers will be retiring, which means retirement portfolios and 401ks will be liquidated. This generation certainly can’t rely on Social Security, so stocks will be sold for cash and invested in bonds.

The danger lies in the fact that Baby Boomers are the largest and wealthiest population group. Stocks will fall for many years as the Boomers cash in their chips. Think about it: They provided the fuel for the long bull market and by pulling their capital out, the market will fall.

Won’t the next generation buy the stocks Baby Boomers are selling?

Unfortunately, Generation X is a much smaller generation than the Boomers. Plus, Generation X’s buying power is no match for the large portfolios that will be sold off in droves. This is expected because older people simply have more money. To top it off, X’ers have less money for investing because of the increasing cost of living. Just being able to afford a house and paying large college debts leaves very little money to invest.

-In 1940, the ratio of people working (and supporting the system) to people receiving benefits under Social Security was 42 to 1.
-By 1960, that ratio was 5 workers for every recipient.
-By 2000, it had dropped to 3 to 1.
-By the year 2044, it is projected to be as low as 2 to 1.1

This is a dire future, and certainly a possibility. But there are some other factors to consider.
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