Retirement battle Round 3: Boomers respond, along with everyone else

It all started with a fairly innocuous (at least in our opinion) story about how younger generations might not want to follow the baby boomers’ lead when it comes to saving for retirement.

It was a simple cautionary tale addressed to Gen Xers, millennials and Zs, pointing out that a sizable segment of the boomer generation regrettably has not socked away enough to support themselves during their golden years. And lest these youngsters seek to end up on a similar metaphorical “Road to Nowhere,” they’d better soon change their ways.

That’s nothing out of the ordinary for a financial publication, right? We sherpa our readers across financial guilt trips all the time. It’s part of what we do.  

OK, based on the volume of angry boomer responses, maybe we were a bit heavy-handed that first column out, but still, our intentions were both well-meaning and honest. And that’s exactly what we tried to explain to readers in a follow-up column that only turned the heat up on the intergenerational brawl we truly never intended to start!

Seriously, the torrent of emails we received after we published “Boomers bite back” from members of all generations was something we had never experienced before. Any doubts that we not only touched a nerve but took a jackhammer to it were quickly put to rest.

With that lesson learned, we decided to skip the sermonizing this time around and let the readers speak for themselves. And so dear readers of all generations, please find a smattering of the reactions we received to our first two articles, many of them edited for space. We encourage your responses if you would like to weigh in on the debate. Hopefully the third time will be a charm!

BOOMER REACTIONS

A significant percentage of the boomer reaction to the retirement crisis articles specifically emphasized their financial independence, in other words, boomers’ ability to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Quite often, the authors angled their own money or career struggles in sharp contrast to what they see as the pampered lives of younger generations.

Boomer Tammy H., for example, wrote in detail about how her generation “left home after high school with little help from our parents” and “put ourselves through college working full-time jobs or several part-time jobs,” while doing without the “fancy SUV, the big house, fancy clothes, vacations and Starbucks.”

Added Tammy H.: “We didn’t start out at the top, we worked hard to get there. We took care of our parents in old age. We didn’t abandon them. We helped our ungrateful, entitled kids and raised our grandkids. We earned everything we have.”

A similarly large chunk of boomers blamed corporate greed as the root of the nation’s retirement crisis.

“Things might have worked out had it not been for a phenomenon unlike anything our forefathers would have dreamed of, which was the selling of the plants and the closing of the mills that built America — and the free world — to foreign investors,” wrote AC. “Moving jobs out of the country to save on labor and taxes was wonderful for the wealthy and well-to-do but sucks for those not in a position to capitalize on it at the moment it happens.”

Other members of the boomer generation pointed to poor timing as the reason why a vast number of boomers have struggled to save. Timing, of course, being everything (or at least close to it) when it comes to investing.

“The tail end of the boomers entered the workforce during the results of Nixon’s Stagflation,” write Kevin G. “Out of school into high unemployment, super high interest rates, high energy costs. It wasn’t a great time to start preparing for future home ownership or future retirement.”

That said, Dan F. and others saw the writing on the wall, maxing out their 401(k)s every year instead of depending on a pension to bail them out.

“I thought it was extremely obvious when companies started offering 401(k)s that they were trying to get out of the pension business. I would encourage younger generations to follow this boomer’s retirement plan. I quit working at 49 with absolutely no financial worries or wants,” Dan F. said.

Charles L., meanwhile, suggests that the boomers made an honest demographic mistake when it comes to their alleged overuse of public resources.

“What wasn’t appreciated at the time was the generation following the boomers is 20% smaller and we had just given ourselves a huge raise that our children would be paying for,” he wrote.  

Along similar lines, Danielle J. contends that for all the slings and arrows they are currently absorbing from younger folks, the boomers didn’t set out to sabotage the finances of future generations, and everybody involved should just move on.

“Pointing fingers at one another solves nothing and is cruel to those with less power. Have a nice day!”  Danielle J. said.

REACTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF OTHER GENERATIONS

As for the non-boomer response, Wayne S. was one of many who showed no empathy for the “wealthiest generation.”

“They kept destroying the economy and ripping up the safety nets, passing laws to take money away from themselves while concentrating it in the hands of the few. Now that they got old and need the help they destroyed, they’re instead bleating for help while denying responsibility,” Wayne S. wrote.

Likewise, Gen Xer Roy M. planted the blame for the nation’s retirement crisis squarely at the feet of the boomers before him.

“Boomers created the political climate that allowed Social Security to languish and pensions to disappear, not to mention health care which can bankrupt anyone in the blink of an eye. I don’t think you can complain about having to remain a servant to the privileged when you created that privilege through your own actions,” he wrote. “I’m just sad that I’ve managed to live to see the fruit of their labors come to pass.”

And even as many boomers blamed an unfair economic cycle for their inability to prepare for retirement, so did many Gen Xers, especially when it comes to the surge in the cost of education.

“As a Gen Xer my main problem is that when I graduated high school, I was told to go to college. No one was hiring someone with just a high school diploma because this was the big changeover from paper files and analog to digital,” said Allyssa R. “But by the time I finished college no one wanted a college graduate. Twenty years post university and ten million excuses from employers and a plethora of piddly part-time jobs, I have zero savings and virtually no retirement!”

When it comes to boomers saying they made an honest demographic mistake in misjudging the size of the generation behind theirs, Gen X readers like David N. dismiss that notion entirely.

“Don’t let them off the hook! The future threat to Social Security was clear in the demographic evidence by the start of the 1980s, as the generation of children of the Silent Generation (Gen X) was not large enough to support the retirement of the boomers. But God forbid the boomers impose additional expense on themselves to fix a system that would still be operating through their own retirement!” David N. wrote.

Finally, a hearty thanks to India S. for summing up the millennial mood when it comes to the battle between the boomers and subsequent generations.  

“Thank you for your blunt warning about retirement and not following in their footsteps for retirement planning,” she wrote. “I am 36 years old and considered a millennial, even though I’m on the line. But, quite frankly, I’ve had enough of our parents’ opinions. The fact that they flooded your inbox with responses to defend themselves speaks volumes of their self-centered nature.”

You are very welcome, India!