The kids and I are up in Pittsburgh right now. My wife had to stay home as she continues to recover from migraines. We are having a great time. The weather is fantastic, and my parents live out in the country, so it feels like a vacation.
This has been the activity list:
1. Visit my sister and look at her new house (very exciting). We went to a restaurant near her house, where my youngest, Jesse, announced, "These are the worst chicken fingers I have ever had in my life." He would know. It is 50% of his diet
2. Played lots of Uno.
3. Pickleball every morning. My Mom is trying to find a good local court where people are friendly and will put up with her substandard abilities. We have met some lovely people.
4. We made both pumpkin and blueberry pies. They are already long gone
5. We also went to a state park (Ohiopyle) which has a "butt slide" where a natural slide has been cut out of the rocks.
The other day, I was messing around on Google and typed in: "Baby Boomer Retirement."
These are the search results in order:
1. Are We in a Baby Boomer Retirement Crisis?
2. One-third of baby boomers had nothing saved for retirement at age 58
3. Tough retirement realities for baby boomers
4. Lack of retirement savings haunts Baby Boomers
5. Baby Boomers Face Reality They Might Never Retire
How could you not worry about retirement when hearing this dismal news?
But are Baby Boomer’s prospects really that dire?
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, have notably low poverty levels compared to other age groups. The poverty rate for Americans aged 65 and older is around 10.3%, which is significantly lower than the national average. Over the past 50 years, the poverty rate for older adults has dropped sharply from nearly 30% in 1966 to approximately 10% today.
And though there are now more millennials than boomers in the world, the latter still control 50% of all the wealth in the U.S.—more than any other generation.
Forbes recently published an article titled, The Graying of Wealth. In it, author Neil Howe writes, "The relative affluence of today’s elderly is historically unprecedented. Never before have the 75+ had the highest median household net worth of any age bracket. Today, the typical 80-year-old household has twice the net worth of the typical 50-year-old household."
According to the 2016 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, here is the median net worth by age in the U.S.:
Ages 55-64: $212,500
Ages 65-74: $266,400
Ages 75 and older: $268,800
Do you know what this means? The average American sees their financial status improve as they age. This data is so counter-cultural that it is almost hard to believe. Really, Baby Boomers should be less worried than any generation in the world's history.
The doom and gloom surrounding Baby Boomers and retirement is profoundly over-hyped.
This kind of one-sided information dramatically skews the perception of most Americans nearing the end of their careers. These articles are ultimately irrelevant for a majority of the population. I see it play out all the time in my office. My clients are terrified when they retire and start the process of living off their investments and Social Security. As I continue to see them through the years almost all of them say, "Things are actually going good. It's not so bad after all."
It also really helps that most Boomers are homeowners, and they've seen a considerable increase in equity in their homes in recent years.
Forty-eight percent of retirees can maintain their standard of living once retired.
One-third of retirees have more money 20 years into retirement than on the day they retire.
If I were in charge, these would be the first five results when searching for "baby boomer retirement."
1. The Majority of Baby Boomers Will Thrive Once Retired
2. The Bottom 25 percent of Americans Will Struggle Financially in Retirement, But What About the Other 75 percent?
3. The Elderly Are Wealthier Than at Any Other Time in American History
4. The Average Retiree Sees Their Net Worth Increase as They Age
5. Nearly Half of Boomers Will Not Have to Adjust Their Lifestyle Once Retired
Now, that is refreshing.
Dave
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