What Are The Baby Boomers? We’re The Movers and the Shakers!

What are the baby boomers? We’re probably the largest generation who’ve rejected, redefined, and influenced much of today’s way of life. From child-rearing to politics. We’ve seen the most technological changes in any generation, and have easily adapted. We’ve gone from encyclopedias to the internet, from hide & seek to PlayStation, and from party lines to cell phones.

I wanted this article to be an extension of my previous article “Who Are The Baby Boomers? You’ll Find Us Online Making Money!“, just for fun! 🙂

Did you know baby boomer years range from 1946 to 1964?  Due to the stability and prosperity of the economy, after wartime, couples decided it was time to start and raise children.  Needless to say, we are a big generation.  About 76 million to be exact!

I wanted to share some of my memories as a baby boomer, give you some fun as well as serious stats, then share with you my thoughts and recommendations.

Some Of My Childhood Memories

As children, my siblings and I were mostly raised by our grandparents, because both our parents worked so hard to make ends meet. I can still remember sitting on my grandpa’s lap, rocking and snuggling. And I remember my grandma’s tender kisses whenever we hurt ourselves. They gave us all the love and security we could ever need.

I remember playing outside, having neighbourhood games of hide-and-seek, and kick the can. In those days, we stayed out all day, came home for supper, then went out again until dark. All the neighbourhood parents watched out for each other’s kids, and no one worried about us playing outside (with no cell phone contact, lol).

I remember sitting on my grandpa’s lap in the car, pretending to drive. A big ‘ol black Pontiac from the 50s. That thing was all steel with lots of room to bounce around. Yup, no seat belts back then.

I’d often take a nap laying on the dash of the rear window. And going to the drive-in theatres on the weekends were great fun. We got to stay up late because the sun sets very late in northern Alberta in the summer.

We walked quite a distance to school, uphill there and back, LOL. Just kidding! But we did walk pretty far. If we were lucky, we sometimes rode my friend’s horses to school. We had blackboards with chalk, which we had to clean if we were being punished for something. Our trips to the principle’s office were scary. It usually meant the strap! I know this is a controversial topic today, but I got to tell you… fear of the strap kept you in line most of the time.

And I’ll never forget the school drills we went through. In the case of nuclear war, we had a huge siren in the middle of town, and when that went off, we had to hide under our desks. As if that would have helped…

As a teenager, we had to endure sharing one, rotary phone in the house. It was usually stuck on the kitchen wall with a short cord. That really put a kink in our calls from our boyfriends. No Privacy! And not only in your own home but from anyone listening in on our party line. Boy, how did we survive? haha.

I can still remember listening to our music on the huge living room stereo, with our newest vinyl record. Even to this day, I still love that crackling sound.

Our parents indulged us by letting us play our “rebellious” music. Which makes me laugh considering some things we hear today!

Back then we wrote letters to keep in touch with people. Can you imagine that… And we used typewriters with carbon copy paper to make duplicates. Erasing mistakes was quite the pain, but I still miss the sound of those clicking keys.

Then the era of cell phones. When I first heard about this technology, I couldn’t believe my ears. How could you possibly call a person? A person! The closest we ever got to that was with CB radios.

The first ones were huge! I didn’t get my first phone until a lot later when they were smaller and more affordable. But I still remember staring at people, carrying these huge phones on their belts.

The picture to the right is the inventor of the first cellphone in 1973, Dr. Martin Cooper.

Wow, I could think of a so much more to write, but this post would never end! There are so many things unique to the baby boomer generation.

Now, of course, there’s the generation X, the millennials, and our newest generation Z. And one day they’ll write about everything they remember and the new things they saw come into existence.

I found this video, which is multi-generational. Take a peek, it’s hilarious!

This is a great article from Good Housekeeping of 28 Things Only Baby Boomers Will Remember. I think I agree! It’s worth a look for the pictures alone!

Baby Boomer Facts

Regarding Values:

• 67% say that adult children have the responsibility to provide financial help to elderly parents compared to 84% of millennials.
• 90% of boomers are married and 49% were married between ages 18 and 33.
• 83% identify with one religion compared to 64% of millennials.

Regarding Politics:

• 66% of baby boomers say that reducing the deficit isn’t as important that preserving social security and Medicare.
• Only 35% of boomer voters say that the government should do more to solve their problems, compared to 59% of millennials.

Regarded Consumerism:

• Boomers are approximately 44% of the US population, and they’re projected to hold 70% of US disposable income in the next 5 years and purchase 49% of total consumer-packaged goods.
• Baby boomers spend the most in all areas but are targeted by just 5-10% of marketing.
• Spending by boomers is expected to increase over the next 20 years, by 58% to $4.74 trillion.
• Baby boomers account for 80% of all luxury travel spending.

Regarding Economics:

• 65% of baby boomers do not plan to retire or at least plan to work past age 65.
• 59% are unemployed and looking for work
• 33% are employed and looking for work.

Regarded Employment:

• 80% of baby boomers are still in the workforce (in their early 50’s) and 1/3 of the oldest ones are still working in some capacity.
• 54% of boomers spend between 5 and 20 hours per week searching for a job.
• The top choice of social networking site for Boomers (29%) searching for a job, is Linkedin.
• 65% of baby boomers feel like they suffer from age discrimination.

Regarding Investments:

• During retirement, only 41% of boomers didn’t expect Social Security to be a major source of their income.
• After being surveyed, 45% of boomers had absolutely nothing saved for retirement.
• 30% postponed their retirement plans for financial reasons.

Regarded Entrepreneurship:

• More than 80% of baby boomers launch new ventures to boost their income, or as a lifestyle choice for independence or interests.
• Baby boomers are twice as likely to start a new business as compared to millennials.
• 45% of boomers consider themselves to be entrepreneurs.

My Thoughts And Recommendations

I was both startled as well as could relate to many of the statistics above.

Boomers, being a large percentage of the population, account for much of the spending across the board. They expect spending to increase over the next 20 years to 4.74 trillion dollars. Wow!

And yet only 5-10% of the marketing is directed to this generation. I believe there is a huge opportunity for businesses to increase their sales by targeting this group.

As for baby boomers themselves, look how many are pushing ahead their retirement plans due to financial concerns. Myself being one of them! Many have no savings, or not enough to sustain them through those retirement years.

So what’s the answer?

Well, look at the percentage starting new ventures…80%. Isn’t that incredible? As entrepreneurs, they have no hesitation in starting new businesses.

This is what I chose to do, and chose to start online so that I would have the freedom to work from anywhere. I am now supplementing our retirement income, and still have the ability to work from home (in my P.J.’s if I want…wink), or when travelling.

I encourage anyone who wishes to create additional income streams to try online marketing. It’s not difficult, and with patience and consistency, everyone can do this.

If you’d like to read about the wonderful platform where I learned everything I needed to know to become successful, please click the button below for a full, insider review.

Are you a baby boomer? Or maybe your parents are? This is an incredible generation, who’ve seen so many new technologies come into existence. It’s been quite a ride!

If you have any questions, please leave them below in the comment section, and I’ll get right back to you.

And please share!

Cheers,

Suzanne

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