I am often struck by the difference between our parents' retirement plans and those of our generation. Our parents all retired between the age of 58 to 62 with pensions, Social Security, and retirement health care. The funds they saved on their own and via their profit sharing plans at work were just gravy for them. No worries about their money lasting, changes in their health plans as they were income secure. They even got Senior Cards from McDonald's that entitled them to free drinks and sundae's anytime they came in...senior discounts were in their heyday! We hoped it would last for our turn, but always feared it would not as it seemed all just too generous especially for such a large group as us Boomers. Now don't get me wrong, I think our parents deserved every bit of it and more. They fought in WWII, lived through the Great Depression and are truly the Greatest Generation. It's just that it would be nice to have a piece of that pie!
NOW they are telling us that we have to plan for and save for our own retirement, this just in the past 10 years or so. This is a great experiment with the Boomers as the guinea pigs. When Roosevelt started Social Security it was because there were so many who could no longer work in their old age, and who became totally impoverished. Good idea....this three legged stool with SS, pension, and personal savings. Now pensions are provided to fewer people every year, there is talk about cutting further into SS when the age was just recently raised, and personal savings become the end game for retirement planning.
Is there hope for the Boomers? Will we survive this experiment and thrive through our own retirment phase? I think so! We just won't have the same retirement as our parents....just as we didn't have the same anything else as our parents' generation. More on how to tomorrow!
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