Paul Hodges has some interesting thoughts re boomers and their changing spending habits over at his blog.
The extract below is part of his comment;’
‘But they are getting closer to retirement, with a median age of 54 years. And so their need for ‘new things’ is reducing, as is their ability to afford them. Equally, as the above chart from thechartstore.com shows, their savings rate is starting to shoot up. They were let down by the stock market after the dot-com boom; then the housing market disappointed.
So now we seem to be seeing the start of a generational switch from spending to saving in the world’s most important market. From close to zero, the savings rate has already jumped to 6%, as baby-boomers worry about how to afford their retirement, especially as they can expect to live longer than any generation in history’.
Harry Dent argues that the economic cycle is dependent on the generation spending wave. And that indicates that things are not going to improve for quite a while yet. I hope he’s wrong, but in the mean time I am one of those boomers who is cutting spending and trying to save more!.
To read more go to Boomers cutting spending and start saving.
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OK…. I am opening myself up here but I am desperate to update this WP Theme and finally have a header that is representative of what this …a blog that Baby Boomer Lifestyle should represent. I originally planned that this to be about superyatchs etc, but this credit crunch has hit us all hard. Don’t get me wrong - we should all aim high, but perhaps a more tempered approach is warranted in this economic climate!
OK some in - all in. What of the category selection? To me travel, health, technology ie the internet are paramount. Retirement also important but has geographical considerations. What do you consider important for you? That is all you Baby Boomers and Cuspers out there?
What do you guys out there think? I hope there is someone out there that can give a few pointers.
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I love technology and gadgets. I’ve always loved Mac computers and think the iPhone is the bees knees. I couldn’t imagine life without the whole internet scene either…..BUT…..I just want it to work like it should! I don’t want to know how it works - I just want to have some fun doing it and getting my desired end result.
The whole social media scene has been one that I have kept at arms length up until now. Because I didn’t really ‘get it’, I was a bit intimidated by the whole thing. Also social media is touted as a young persons game, and me, even as a 60s boomer should best stay away from things that I just wouldn’t ‘get’.
I first delved into this mystic area when I installed Stumble Upon. Its been great. You just pick a few categories that interest you in the install process and thats it…. an icon appears in its tool bar and when you want to surf the net for say travel you click on the stumble image and you are brought to a new travel related site.
I then opened a digg account but didn’t do much with it as I didn’t seem to pick an idea that seems popular and has a mass digg appeal. If you have a site I can see the power this site would have. I think its a matter of studying what people do digg and then bring that style to your site.
Next I went to Squidoo. Now this must be the easiest way to have a web presence. Its a simple step by step process and voila….you have your own site. Just add content and you can be an immediate expert in your area of interest. You can add pictures and even video with one click. Just amazing.
Twitter. I mentioned the other day that I refused to even look at it for years. Well 6 days ago I thought ‘what the heck’ and opened a Twitter account with the username of ‘ima60sboomer’. What I actually do with it I am not sure as yet, but in 6 days i have over 200 followers. Now thats no record but for someone that has never had an auto responder or collected emails to ‘make the list’ I have been blown away by the result.
So for you boomers out there who may be holding back trying some of this stuff - don’t. Its not that hard. Integrating it all and moving onto facebook, having your own youtube account etc is still down the track for me but its a more enjoyable process than I thought it would be.
Filed under Lifestyle, internet, technology by admin
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Whilst on the real estate theme, here is an apartment for you wealthy Baby Boomers out there. A new and imaginative skyscraper with floors that each rotate independently at different speeds was presented in project form on Tuesday in New York by architect David Fisher. The 420m Dynamic Tower in Dubai, will be the world’s first ‘moving’ building.
The 80 story building will be built around a central column and will have up to 79 wind turbines, each fitted between floors to power not only itself but generate electricity for surrounding buildings as well. Each floor of the tower would rotate independently – on voice command - allowing the building to constantly change shape, resulting in a unique and evolving architectural structure. It will take between one and three hours for an apartment to make a complete rotation.
Another great plus, well innovation is that the skyscraper itself could be built entirely from prefabricated parts resulting in cost savings. The approach - known as the Fisher Method - requires far fewer workers on the construction site, lowering costs.
Even so, these apartments won’t come cheap. They will range in size from 124 to 1200 square metres and cost between $US3.7 million and $US36 million. Construction is due for completion in 2010.
Filed under Lifestyle, Travel, technology by admin
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Image by thinkpanama via FlickrBaby Boomers retirement is one of the themes that keeps popping up on blogs all over the web, and indeed in mainstream print as well lately.
As a boomer, but towards the end of the bubble I am becoming even more concerned over what is likely to happen to the world economy in the next few years. As with most people, I have hit a few financial roadbumps along the way and now wonder if my nestegg will be enough. I am sure I am not Robinson Crusoe when it comes to this!
One guy that seems to have been spot on with many forecasts over the past 15-20 years is Harry Dent. His new slant on things takes into account first and foremost, yes - Baby Boomers. We as a group are so much bigger than the population groups both ahead and behind that we as a group have unduly influenced fads and trends since we were tots and consumed huge quantities of Gerber baby food.
We continue to and the in the near future it is the real estate market and the stresses on medical services that will test not just us as a group but our society and the world economy as a whole.
For example, in the US alone 76+ million baby boomers are going to be moving into smaller houses or even retirement homes. Who is going to buy your house? There aren’t enough x and y gen following to take up the slack.
Anyway…..don’t take my word. Here are a couple of paragraphs from Wikipedia re Mr Dent and his theories: “In the early 1990s, he predicted that the DOW would reach 10k. This prediction was met with much skepticism. In 2000, he predicted that the DOW would reach 40k, a prediction which was repeated in his 2004 book. In his book, he also predicted the Nasdaq will reach 13-20k. In January 2006, he predicted that the DOW would reach 14-15,000 by the end of the year. It ended 2006 at 12463, 11% below the lower end of his prediction. It ended 2007 at 13264, again significantly lower than Dent’s revised prediction of 15000 by early 2008. Since then, the Dow crossed 14,000 in late 2007 before retrenching.”
He has been spot on as you can see. But what worries me are the following:
“In contemporary economics, Harry Dent has popularized the baby-boomer age-wave theory. According to him, as a result of baby boomers retiring, the US stock-market will peak between 2007 and 2009. This prediction is based on his observation that consumer spending peaks near age 50.
Schieber and Shoven suggest gradual peaking of social security trust fund around 2007-2009.
Some experts expect the worst consumer recession since 1980 as aging boomers start retiring, adding to rising unemployment, decline in house values, and declining stock prices. However other experts have suggested that immigration to the US and rise of emerging economies will offset the demographic impact”.
Just food for thought…….. Is the big house you are in going to hold its value? What of the retirement nest egg, and should that be looked at again if we go into a drepression as is predicted?
Sure things will go up in the long run…..but how long? How old are you now?
Filed under Health and Fitness, Insurance, Lifestyle by admin
