I proudly belong to the Baby Boomers demographic group. Like most Boomers I am very active and feel younger then my years (I’m 63). I also enjoy the fact that Boomers are a major force in the market. “The post–World War II baby boom produced 78 million baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. Over the years, the baby boomers have been one of the most powerful forces shaping the marketing environment.”(Marketing an Introduction, chapter 3 page13).
All is not wonderful though; the recent down turns in the economy first brought on by the “Dot Com” crash in 2000 and then the housing crash in 2007-2008 have devastated my savings as well as the savings of the majority of Boomers. I don’t believe that the younger generations fully understand the impact this has had on us. Almost every Boomer I know is having to get along at poverty level or is having to continue working past retirement age. This is made even worse with the decrease in health with age and the increasing cost of health services and medications. A good example of wearing blinders is in our own text book, “Based on a large-scale “New Retirement Mindscape” study, Ameriprise Financial developed a Dream Book planning guide that helps boomers to explore their retirement dreams and create a life strategy for retirement. The Dream Book guide becomes one of the first steps in Ameriprise Financial’s Dream > Plan > Track financial planning approach. The company’s “Dreams don’t retire” advertising campaign promises that the company will help boomers identify new strategies and opportunities for navigating the risks to happy retirement.”( Marketing an Introduction, chapter 3 page14). You have to have a minimum of $500,000 in savings to even talk to most financial advisors.
The only upside to all of this is that the Boomers are still better off than most. Most of us still own our own homes and at least have some money in savings. Also we are healthier than previous generations.
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