Fact: It is a fact that our children were not around when Baby Boomers instituted Social Security benefits for all. Baby Boomers made this promise to themselves. Sadly and very soon, our children are going to start waking up to this fact. Why should they pay for this mistake? Baby Boomers have failed to save for retirement, thus they are working into their 70’s and beyond and are putting a tax and financial strain on the younger generation.
Fact: The cost of higher education has grown twice as fast as inflation. When the average college student graduates they owe, on the average, $35,000. Really ponder this statistic: 94 percent of those graduating with a bachelor’s degree are in debt.
Fact; Consider when Baby Boomers die, they sell their homes and securities. This is putting downward pressure on values both in real estate and the stock markets. Our children have not fully seen how this is going to negatively affect them just yet, especially since the first wave of 
Baby Boomers are just now starting to die. When more pass on, the impact of Baby Boomer deaths on the economy is going to become very clear as our children’s health care costs soar and housing prices plummet.
What does all this mean? It means that silently the Baby Boomers have been asking the younger generation to bail them out for their financial irresponsibility for years now, and they’ve been doing it in a way that isn’t quite yet clear to those who are coming up behind them. Our children really don’t realize yet what it means for our government to keep over spending and for taxes to continue rising higher and higher to pay for socialized medicine, but they soon will…
Ten thousand people turn age 65 each and every day. Consider this post as a warning to those people younger than 60 who are coming up behind these retiring 65-year-olds. In the next 10 years things are going to get nasty financially speaking in this country and the only way to survive the mess the Boomers and the government have created is to get personally prepared so you won’t be swept away by all of it. Think about the following as a means to do this:
- Remove yourself from the herd right now. That means stop thinking 401(k) for retirement. It means stop spending with abandon as perhaps your parents have done for the last 25 years. It means stop getting in over your head with credit and get out of debt now.
- Start thinking like your grandparents and great grandparents in terms of frugal living. Get away from the idea that you can always having everything your little heart desires, and start embracing the fact that money and resources may not always be at your fingertips — think more self reliance and Great Depression and less consumerism and “gotta have it now.”
- Get emergency savings in place now. Don’t wait any longer to put away at least 3 month’s salary and as much as 6 if you can possibly manage it. On top of that, put a few stores away in the form of food and basic necessities, in case you lose your job and can’t find another one for a while.
- In the new year, begin to manage your money in a new way. Think Spending Plan, Debt Plan, and Savings/Retirement Plan and discover how all these must work together at the same time. Go here to discover why.
I am optimistic about freedom and the American Dream, but problems and pressures will come along we have not experienced in our lifetimes, problems only our grandparents and great grandparents understand. When economic disaster hits cash is KING and the only way to get that cash is to start managing your finances differently today than you EVER have before. Learn how to create a cash surplus now by contacting me: peter@moneymastery.com.
