Monday, April 05, 2010

The Boomers…

The U.S. baby boom generation is seen here as ...

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Whether you are one or are not one, you know the Baby Boomers are a force of monumental significance.

You’ve heard the term, but we don’t always think about this group of 60 million people at “roughly” the same age moving through life stages together.

That’s what I really enjoyed about the CNBC program with Tom Brokaw about the Booomers.

He put this group into some perspective in terms of the positives (social change, civil rights) and negatives (over-developed sense of entitlement and living beyond means).

Obviously, not everyone, but if 30% of them do something, that’s still 18 million people.

As a history major, I like to take the step back and sometimes look at the historical swaths, so I appreciated the framework of The Greatest Generation (like my Poppy) to the Baby Boomers (my mom) and then to me. I saw how I fit (a small bit player, of course) into this larger trend.

And, of course, the warning signs…particularly around healthcare costs. One estimate says that 33% of every dollar in 20 years will be on healthcare. That’s a lot of money.

Anyway, understanding (or at least thinking about) the Boomers may help you navigate the next stage of their lives because, no matter where you fit on the demographic spectrum….it’s going to have a sizeable impact.

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