Let's get Generational!

[adelaster]

I was under the impression Boomers saved less for retirement than any of the more modern generations are doing.

These are the only stats I could find and they don't seem to support that.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/07/how...ly-has-saved-for-retirement-at-every-age.html

Not savings, but the two of you may be interested in this data-

U.S. Department of labor released this:


Another, from data compiled 1984-2014:

 

[adelaster]

My wife and I both work for large corporations. Our employers (and the financial institutions that run their 401k plans) have really stepped up "education efforts" on those age 35 to 50...Gen Xers.....to either increase their contributions, or START contributions because they are so far behind where they "should" be.
As a baby boomer, I would only comment that an AMAZING number of people in our age group have been able to retire long before full retirement age. 55 to 60 seems to be a popular age. I'm 60, and I hope to retire at 63, which is still nearly 4 years early, but not as young as many of my high school and college classmates.

How much you can save is relative to how much you earn and how much basic cost of living is. There are a lot of variables. I would wager that most people try to increase their savings as they approach and pass the age of 50. True, that often isn't enough or early enough, but I don't think anyone spends wantonly into old age intentionally. Economics impact different age groups differently.

 

[ronandannette]

Interesting data on housing expenditures. My guess is that the high dollars spent by Gen X'ers reflect large mortgages on high-priced property. And given that real-estate prices are so high it doesn't seem likely those houses will appreciate enough over the length of the mortgage to yield much of an up-side. I know I see my home as a way to preserve wealth more than grow it.

OTOH, the Milennials seem to spend relatively little on housing. I speculate very few of them are actually homeowners. It may be that they are priced out of the market entirely until some "wealth-transfer" (in the form of inheritance) happens to facilitate their ability to purchase. And with their Boomer or X'er parents living longer, well, I'm not sure where that leaves them. The future is even murkier for Gen Edge.

 

[wenrob]

I was under the impression Boomers saved less for retirement than any of the more modern generations are doing.

That’s certainly what I’ve witnessed with both sets of my folks and their siblings. To a person all pretty crappy with money in general which is why I’m pretty OCD about it. Not making a broad statement about Boomers just the ones I know.

 

[wenrob]

My wife and I both work for large corporations. Our employers (and the financial institutions that run their 401k plans) have really stepped up "education efforts" on those age 35 to 50...Gen Xers.....to either increase their contributions, or START contributions because they are so far behind where they "should" be.
As a baby boomer, I would only comment that an AMAZING number of people in our age group have been able to retire long before full retirement age. 55 to 60 seems to be a popular age. I'm 60, and I hope to retire at 63, which is still nearly 4 years early, but not as young as many of my high school and college classmates.

As I said, it’s completely flipped from where I stand. Without divulging their personal situations suffice it to say it has fallen/will fall to their kids to make up the difference later. My DH and I on the other hand will be 50 next year and could comfortably retire in a few years. A large part of that is witnessing the mistakes that came before us. Again, this is people *I* know, the vast majority may be different.

 

[adelaster]

OTOH, the Milennials seem to spend relatively little on housing. I speculate very few of them are actually homeowners. It may be that they are priced out of the market entirely until some "wealth-transfer" (in the form of inheritance) happens to facilitate their ability to purchase. And with their Boomer or X'er parents living longer, well, I'm not sure where that leaves them. The future is even murkier for Gen Edge.

Thank you for this. It is the reality of so many I know.

ETA: A large portion of incomes go to housing, but I think that is impacted by location.

 

[tvguy]

As I said, it’s completely flipped from where I stand. Without divulging their personal situations suffice it to say it has fallen/will fall to their kids to make up the difference later. My DH and I on the other hand will be 50 next year and could comfortably retire in a few years. A large part of that is witnessing the mistakes that came before us. Again, this is people *I* know, the vast majority may be different.

Certainly it isn't black and white, always exceptions.

 

[tvguy]

Thank you for taking the time to type out a more detailed explanation of what I was trying to say. In addition, Gen X (at least in the US) are not getting pensions at the rate of the Boomers either, so we are trying to save for retirement at the same time. Money is finite and it is a balancing act.

It isn't as simple as saying Gen Xers are extravagant overspenders...

Yeah, no pension here. Pensions however are much more common for public sector workers than private.

 

[tvguy]

We didn't experience the "Great Recession" here in Canada in quite the same way; no sub-prime mortgage crisis or banking collapse - because our system is slightly different. But it's certainly true that anyone (think Gen X here) that hadn't amassed the bulk of their wealth or achieved their peak earning status prior to that time were at a great disadvantage. Things have never quite rebounded completely and due to economic uncertainty opportunities just haven't existed for us over the past decade the way they did for the Boomers.

Couple that with the fact that many Boomers are staying at their (relatively) senior level jobs longer than any generation in history. For example, the regional VP of my company plans to retire at 70, by which time I'll be in my early 60's myself. It's almost certain a Millenial will be groomed for promotion in the meantime and I believe this is a VERY common situation today, not something specific to my company. I think this lack of opportunity for Gen X has fuelled our drive for work-life balance and a lack if interest in deferring "the good life" until retirement. An affluent retirement may not be in the cards for many of us and we have decided to acquire goods and have experiences now, while the cash-flow makes it possible.

Not looking to start another war over Canada, but only 2 of my 13 cousins in Canada worked to age 60. One of my cousins said once you have 30 years in and are age 55 they make it tough not to retire. Several of them have gotten financial incentives to retire to open up their job for younger, and lower paid workers.

 

[Wendy31]

Not savings, but the two of you may be interested in this data-

U.S. Department of labor released this:
View attachment 275434

Another, from data compiled 1984-2014:
View attachment 275435

So, while we Gen-Xers are the smallest generation, we're currently spending the most.

I know that my Baby Boomer parents & DH's Baby Boomer parents were most definitely savers. My parents had better paying jobs than did DH's parents, but both sets of our parents saved, prepared well for their futures/retirements, & have always lived well within their means. In fact, many times, growing up, although my parents had the money for different things, they didn't spend the money for the different things. They were frugal, &, while I had things, I never had the most expensive of anything.

As an example, growing up, we'd go on vacation, &, at least 3 nights of our week's vacation, my mom would cook dinner in our condo. In contrast, when we we go on vacation, we eat out every night.

And, I think, we Gen-Xers benefited from having Baby Boomers for parents & Traditionalists for grandparents - it gave us (even if limited) financial security while growing up in a time before the cost of living went up so dramatically & before the "tech gadget" area - it was easier to live within your means & be financially secure.

Gen-Xers were also probably the last generation to attend college when college costs weren't sky-high.

And different kinds of jobs were readily available - computer & tech jobs, service jobs, etc. But there were also well-paying jobs available where college degrees weren't required.

And, most of us were in our early twenties & purchasing our first homes during a real estate boom - it was easy to make the first home purchase which then made subsequent home purchases easier.

All that, though, combined made us not very good savers for the future/financial planners. We're the slacker generation for a reason.

 

[gotomu212]

I found this a little hard to believe. My twins were born one minute apart in 1980 and their SS numbers aren't even close, even though I applied at the same time for their social security cards. I did find this link that shows that each state was assigned a number (not each zipcode) but that only impacted the first 3 numbers http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/blackssn.asp

Ha! Those generalizations are completely flipped in my experience.

Yeah, I find it hard to believe as well. My sister, step brother and I all got our social security numbers at the same time and they’re pretty close numerically. They’re both two years younger than I am and he was born in CA. My twins numbers aren’t, also issued at the same time.

Here’s the paper from Carnegie Melon where they report their findings in 2009 http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/ssnstudy/

This led to SSA randomizing the numbers in 2011.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I found this a little hard to believe. My twins were born one minute apart in 1980 and their SS numbers aren't even close, even though I applied at the same time for their social security cards. I did find this link that shows that each state was assigned a number (not each zipcode) but that only impacted the first 3 numbers http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/blackssn.asp

Ha! Those generalizations are completely flipped in my experience.

Yeah, I find it hard to believe as well. My sister, step brother and I all got our social security numbers at the same time and they’re pretty close numerically. They’re both two years younger than I am and he was born in CA. My twins numbers aren’t, also issued at the same time.

Interesting. My twins are one number off from eachother. Go figure.

 

[Skippy918]

I am a tail end gen Xer but I’ve seen the buzzfeed list of Xennials and that really hit home for me. Some generation groupings list my birth year as millennial. I spent most of the 80s in elementary school and 90s was split between high school and college.

 

[wgeo]

I love these discussions, they are so interesting. What happens to the health care system? I feel like there's going to be a big run up of assisted living typ facilities to handle the baby boomers, and when then X-ers show up and there are 20 million less of them? That's going to be a game changer for the industry.

I'm a late X-er, never quite felt at home with the X's on everything, but don't fit the Millenial type at all. Husband and I are die hard savers. I started my 401K on the first day of my job at 21 years old. Just goes to show that there are exceptions within every generalization.

 

[tvguy]

I love these discussions, they are so interesting. What happens to the health care system? I feel like there's going to be a big run up of assisted living typ facilities to handle the baby boomers, and when then X-ers show up and there are 20 million less of them? That's going to be a game changer for the industry.

I'm a late X-er, never quite felt at home with the X's on everything, but don't fit the Millenial type at all. Husband and I are die hard savers. I started my 401K on the first day of my job at 21 years old. Just goes to show that there are exceptions within every generalization.

I live in an area the has always had a lot of nursing homes, assisted living, and rehab facilities........and a company called Oakmont is building new ones here as fast as they can. 70 apartments per facility. With the rates they are charging the buildings will be paid for long before demand falls off. They can convert them to regular apartments or just tear the building down and walk away with a tidy profit. http://oakmontofcarmichael.com/

 

[wgeo]

I live in an area the has always had a lot of nursing homes, assisted living, and rehab facilities........and a company called Oakmont is building new ones here as fast as they can. 70 apartments per facility. With the rates they are charging the buildings will be paid for long before demand falls off. They can convert them to regular apartments or just tear the building down and walk away with a tidy profit. http://oakmontofcarmichael.com/

Interesting idea, I didn't even think of converting. Yeah I live in FL - the land of retirees - and I am amazed at the nonstop building of the senior housing facilities. There's an obvious demand right now, they fill up before the construction is even done and the wait lists for the good places is still years long. Yet we have a serious affordable housing issue in this city. The workers who staff those places can't afford to live here.

 

[tvguy]

Interesting idea, I didn't even think of converting. Yeah I live in FL - the land of retirees - and I am amazed at the nonstop building of the senior housing facilities. There's an obvious demand right now, they fill up before the construction is even done and the wait lists for the good places is still years long. Yet we have a serious affordable housing issue in this city. The workers who staff those places can't afford to live here.

Funny thing is, these retirement homes all seem to be going on sites that used to be hospitals or medical offices near where hospitals used to be. The hospitals here have consolidated "beds" at other sites. If there were licensed for 200 beds at one site, and 400 at the other, they add on to the larger site and move the licensed beds there. I'm not a fan of this, because if there is a disaster such as a flood or earthquake etc, and the area near the hospital is hit hard, you've lost all 600 beds, not just 400.

 

[wenrob]

Interesting idea, I didn't even think of converting. Yeah I live in FL - the land of retirees - and I am amazed at the nonstop building of the senior housing facilities. There's an obvious demand right now, they fill up before the construction is even done and the wait lists for the good places is still years long. Yet we have a serious affordable housing issue in this city. The workers who staff those places can't afford to live here.

I have three of these facilities within two miles of my home. It’s definitely a booming business, no pun intended.

On the saving, my oldest is right on the cusp of Millennial and Gen Edge, born in 96. She is a saver. Where most of us have our checks deposited into checking and distribute some to savings, she has hers deposited into savings and distributes some to checking. Granted, she has no rent to pay at the moment but she also pays her own tuition. She also has an IRA set up that she pays into regularly and has a good start with Union benefits. The plan is for her to buy her own home when she graduates, possibly sooner. She has it far more together than I ever did at 21.

 

[tzolkin]

As I said, it’s completely flipped from where I stand. Without divulging their personal situations suffice it to say it has fallen/will fall to their kids to make up the difference later. My DH and I on the other hand will be 50 next year and could comfortably retire in a few years. A large part of that is witnessing the mistakes that came before us. Again, this is people *I* know, the vast majority may be different.

This is my experience as well.

Most of the older people I know never saved for retirement and expected that they would/could live off social security.

Their children realize that it's important to have money so they don't have to rely on their children, but they waited until closer to retirement to begin saving.

The grandchildren have seen their parents struggle to take care of their grandparents due to their poor planning. That coupled with the belief that social security will probably not be around by the time they go to retire pushes them to focus on saving more at an earlier age.

 

[nancygirl1]

Interesting. My twins are one number off from eachother. Go figure.

My twins have the same first 5 numbers and the last 4 are random.