BOOMER BUST | Now they're changing how America retires

[Bozita]

frontpage above the fold

http://www.freep.com/money/business/boomers27e_20041227.htm

BOOMER BUST | FIRST IN A SERIES
Now they're changing how America retires

Is the coming retirement of the baby boom generation a demographic time bomb for the nation's workplace? Many futurists think so. They warn that employers are unprepared to lose the boomers, those 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 who have changed society, for better or worse, at every step of their lives. Free Press story

* New opportunities for Generations X, Y
* Retiring workers face health cost quagmire
* GRAPHIC: Generation to generation (PDF, 259K)
* View photos from the gallery

ABOUT THE SERIES
TODAY
Retiring boomers will open the way for many in Generation X and Y to move up the corporate ladder.


Health care will be the single biggest problem boomers face in retirement.


TUESDAY
Susan Tompor says many boomers won't have enough money to retire comfortably.


Why? Because they haven't saved enough and don't have the generous pensions of previous generations.


WEDNESDAY
The challenges of working beyond 65 -- the boomers who just won't quit.


Boomers will carry more debt, especially mortgage debt, into retirement than their parents or grandparents.


THURSDAY
Social Security will be there for boomers -- but you may not get as much as you think.


Are you finanically prepared to retire? Use our worksheet to find out.

more...

[bleedingheart]

1. I have been telling people this for years.....

the boomers don't save...
many boomers were convinced that unions were bad so 401k's sounded great in lieu of pensions..
many boomers bought McMansions that look great all lit up for the holidays...but now they can't afford it and if the market falls on housing...they will be SOL if they don't downsize soon...

[sam sarrha]

2. i come from the poorer end of the scale.. i dont know anyone who makes

enough money to save a dime. the demonizing of the unions was to break the pensions the Bottom Line economy is created by Greenspan requiring the Corporations to maintain a 15% growth rate in profits to stay in the Listings... that was not only INSANE but sold us out to the Foreign Interests. This whole Depression is planned..the banks will get our homes the corporations will get our busisness..we get screwed ..so what else is new on Planet Reagan since the Nazi's took over the ballot boxes, the media and the propaganda Tube

[Career Prole]

4. I'm a boomer. I live in a trailer and I've never owned a "new" car in

my entire life, despite the fact that in all my working years I've only been unemployed for a maximum of a month and a half between jobs. There are still no savings.
The trailer and the 2 acres it sits on are paid in full so no one's taking them away.
I'm afraid I've got nothing to down-size.
I've no doubt there are decadent boomers, no doubt at all...but decadence and self-indulgence are present in every generation.
Boomers have no corner on that particular market. :)

[bleedingheart]

8. in the area I live there are a lot of people who rented or lived

in much smaller homes until they got "affluenza"...then they went on a spending spree...

Some did so with their own cash..living to the edge of their paycheck...some did it with inheritance from grandma or grandpa...

[Career Prole]

11. Affluenza! I like that!

I've always gotten nervous just thinking about "owning" something which could be taken away if I lost my income for any one of the many reasons which crop up.
Somewhere around the second or third lay-off I decided I was only going to own only what I could own outright.
I worry for many of the people who jumped on the last housing "boom".
You could see it was political hocus-pocus by the incessant Fannie Mae ads on TV. I couldn't help but wonder at the motive as I hadn't seen 'em in such numbers before.
Then as the economy started sinking the bushites kept pointing and saying "The economy's booming! More people own their own homes than ever before!"
Now the foreclosures are climbing and the ads are gone, but those poor folks losing their homes so soon after buying 'em don't matter.
They were just props and tools to help shrub get re-elected.

[lcordero]

3. Gen.X & Y are NOT GOING TO MOVE UP THE LADDER

The jobs that boomers vacate are going to be moved overseas.

[VegasWolf]

5. Exactly! n/t

[mitchum]

6. Yep!

[eg101]

7. GASP! Better raise the retirement age & import/outsource more cheap labor!

yawn....more neoliberal propaganda used to "manufacture consent" for more cutbacks in the welfare state. If they hit us with enough scare propaganda like this, they figure they can raise the Social Security retirement age, cut benefits, and import more cheap and desperate illegal labor and outsource more to Asia.

MSM is really best suited for fishwrap. I usually don't read too much of the neoliberal, corporatist propaganda they crank out.

[bpilgrim]

17. welcome to DU

it's so tightly aligned with the elites MSG it's obscene :puke:

wtf happened to the got damned PEACE DIVIDEND :argh:

these thieves won't stop till they kill us all one way or the other apparently.

:hi:

peace

[yorkiemommie1]

9. that would be me and my coworkers

in public school system here in CA. i'm luckier than most, because we have been prudent w/ our money . but my hours have been cut to 15/week and they took my benefits (don't worry, the higher ups are doing just fine) and the district just found an additional 3 million dollar deficit which they must address in January. The ax will fall on us, the lowest, unrepresented tier. Most of us are prepared to die in the saddle.

[Massachusetts]

10. Jeeesh...

might as well keep the pick up truck and lawnmower to pick up some yard work for expense money after 65.

Who says you have to Golf every day or travel the world when you retire. I'm from Mass., and there are plenty of things to do and see just New England.

Any Boomer who isn't afraid to work will make it just fine.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Well, immigrant labor will probly do that lawn job

a whole lot cheaper. Your SS will just about pay for your supplememental health care premiums, A lot of other people in similar circumstances will also be retiring, which will drive up the cost of cat food, so you'll have to economize on the horse meatloaf--maybe just once a week as a special treat. You'll be OK--as long as you don't get sick and have the copays wipe out your nest egg, and as long as you don't have to get the roof on your trailer fixed or something, and after that pickup dies you'll actually be better off because you won't have to try to keep it filled with $4 gas anymore, and walking is better for you anyway.

[Wright Patman]

15. Unless you get hit by an SUV

True story. I was out walking on a Sunday afternoon a little over a year ago. A woman driving a Chevrolet Suburban going about 40 mph turned around to tell her kids to behave, ran off the road, hit me head-on and put me in the trauma unit. It is a miracle I am still alive. Only broke 15 to 20 bones. And the SUV was undriveable afterwards, so I guess I "won" in a way.

Guess who doesn't go on leisurely walks anymore? As long as the SUVs own the road and then some, it ain't safe.

[amazona]

14. plenty are not able to work

Chances of being too disabled to work increase greatly in the 50s and start to soar in the 60s. Boomers, or anyone, who plan on being healthy enough to work in their 70s and 80s are betting against the odds. A lot of old folks who do work are actually "retired in place" which does wonderful things for the nation's productivity and younger folks' ability to advance.

As far as picking up yard work for expense money, good luck on that one. Even teen-agers can't work cheaply enough to get those "jobs" any more in my neighborhood when you're competing against scared illegal immigrants. I don't know many older folk who can live decently on $15 a day. But more power to you if you can.

And the corporate landscaping jobs...in my area...they're actually even losing business to slave labor. Our city ended a six figure contract with a landscaper, because they now use prison labor "for free." How does an honest man compete with that?\

And, once your back is injured doing all that yard work, don't forget that your doctor has now been told not to prescribe pain medicine because he might get sued if you get heart disease, although all who live long enough will get heart disease. Sigh.

Ignorance is bliss. Spend some time with actual old people, and not just the most active ones, but old people at all levels of ability and disability, and you will begin to appreciate what nonsense it is that boomers will just be able to work until they die in their tracks.

[Been Fishing]

13. I'm one of the lucky ones

I have a retirement plan, paid-off house, and health insurance. I was able to retire early and might be able to draw SS early at 62.

I know that there are those that haven't been as lucky. I can't financially help everyone that is in need, but I sure can join them in protecting whatever they may have coming to them. I can support their fight to see that SS isn't taken away, that health insurance and medicine are affordable, and that they are protected from criminal and governmental fraud.

Kicking ass may make old age fun.

[NickofTime]

16. Bush Plans to Eliminate SS for All in 2005

Bush plans to eliminate SS for all in 2005:

You need to understand that the Bushites use secret codes on the Internet to spread their messages. Read between the lines here:

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/eliminate_20social_20security#1054141200

Get the straight story here:

http://www.now.org/nnt/winter-99/viewpnt.html

http://www.lthurow.com/articles/html/riskhigh.htm