Boomers are the richest generation!

and why should they be - they are the modern era ; smart and have all the new technologies to assist them - go for it gals and guys!!
 
Someone once said, "There are lies, damn lies and statistics."

Statistics can be very misleading. This article talks about 40% of boomers owning their own homes at 27 years of age.

Home ownership was definitely a dream of young Australians in the aftermath of WWII. It was a time of owner builders mortgaging themselves to buy a block of land. The first building was often a large garage where they lived while a modest timber frame house was erected on weekends and after work. People on lower incomes were able to get mortgages from building societies. Banks wanted loans repaid quickly and charged higher interest rates.

Hubby and I were beneficiaries of building societies. The first mortgage for the land was taken out when we were both 20 years old, still legal infants. We lived with Hubby's parents for nearly 3 years until it was paid off and then we had a house erected on the vacant block. The mortgage on the house was set at an affordable interest rate of 6% and we finally owned the house in 1985 when our children were 18 and 22. I had worked outside the home for most of that time, and we were savers.

Talk about boomers "owning" their first home in their 20s is a nonsense. Sensible use of statistics requires sensible data to be collected. Sensible statisticians do not use words like "gobbled up’ nearly one-third of America’s wealth share". I don't imagine that they use ill-defined categories such as "boomer generation" which is a very large cohort. You need to compare like with like to arrive at meaningful conclusions.
 
Boomers were the IRA/401k generation. We all invested because that's what we were told to do. A few years before retirement, we consolidated all our accounts and it was shocking. We knew we saved that money but never intended to actually spend it. That's what these articles are telling us. We have a large amount of money that needs to be spent. If we don't, the politicians will start eyeballing it. You don't have to make big purchases. You just need to avoid hoarding it. If you have a large amount of savings, you should not be trying to grow it in retirement.
 
Restored said:
Boomers were the IRA/401k generation. We all invested because that's what we were told to do. A few years before retirement, we consolidated all our accounts and it was shocking. We knew we saved that money but never intended to actually spend it. That's what these articles are telling us. We have a large amount of money that needs to be spent. If we don't, the politicians will start eyeballing it. You don't have to make big purchases. You just need to avoid hoarding it. If you have a large amount of savings, you should not be trying to grow it in retirement.
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I guess I'm blessed. I'm a Boomer who is of the pension generation: perhaps because I was a government employee. I saved and invested aggressively both before and after retirement. Most of my investments are tax free because they are in a traditional IRA, from which qualified charitable deductions are taken for my RMDs and a Roth. One reason for the aggressiveness is so I'll have enough to cover me should I have to go into a nursing home for a few years. If not, after I "kick it", I'm happy to leave my son, grandchildren and other beneficiaries with a nice chunk of change.
 
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I would much rather be a card carrying member of the richest generation than the poorest.
😉🤭😂

I agree that our 401k self funded pensions and IRAs do skew the numbers when comparing us to previous generations with traditional pension plans.

It’s a bit shocking to me that anyone would consider being financially secure and independent as a bad thing. 🙃

“Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.” - Franz Kafka
 

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