So Baby Boomer: Life Tips

Condo prices soaring at top ski resorts

Thirty-one percent of skiers last season were are 45 and older compared with 21% during the 1997/98 ski season.  All these Baby Boomers taking to the slopes are driving up demand for nearby vacation homes.

However, if you are willing to drive to the ski slopes each morning, you can save a bundle buying a small house in a small town within 20 or 30 miles of the gondola.  Another alternative is to share the cost of your ski condo with someone you have chosen carefully and then rent the place (through an ethical rental agent) when neither of you is using it.

Although America's seniors are much fitter than their predecessors, they generally have slower reflexes, less strength and aching joints.  Ski resorts are trying to respond by flattening and taming their ski runs to keep Baby Boomers coming back for more.  Craig Tuber, 60, a Chicago resident who owns a second home near the Beaver Creek resort west of Vail, CO, says, "when the grooming is great you get drawn to it so you can make those nice turns and enjoy yourself in a different way.  For people who are a little older it is easier on your body."

Opening up more of the mountain to less experienced and older skiers is wise when demographics suggest the bottom line is behind the grooming.

Source: Robert Weller, The Associated Press, November 9, 2005

It's never too late

Baby Boomers face concerns about finances, their health and the state of the world, but their exuberance is undiminished.  It's not as if they're getting old.   

To say boomers expect to stay young isn't just a figure of speech, it is a statistically verifiable fact.  "Baby Boomers literally think they're going to die before they get old," says J. Walker Smith, president of Yankelovich Partners, the polling company, which found in one study that boomers defined "old age" as starting three years after the average American was dead. People 60 years old today have an actuarial life expectancy of 82.3, but boomers don't consider themselves bound by the laws of statistics; they "fully expect that advances in healthcare and genomics are going to enable them to live past 100," says Smith.

The boomer credo in a nutshell: there are good years left.  A 60-year-old who expects to live to 100 is only halfway through adulthood.  They are intent on refuting Pablo Picasso's maxim that "one starts to get young at the age of 60, and then it's too late."  For boomers, it's never too late.

Source: Ready or Not Boomers Turn 60, Newsweek, November 11, 2005

Phased Retirements Needed

Fully 43% of the workforce is eligible to retire in the next 10 years, and the next two generations are each at least 15% smaller.

So if Baby Boomers retire on schedule, many companies will experience labor shortfalls.  The crunch will come in businesses that are already scrambling for skilled employees, such as energy, health care and education.  In Europe and Japan, where younger workers are in even shorter supply, the pressure will be worse.  Unless something is done, wages in the worker-starved advanced industrial nations could rise to uncompetitive levels, and more of the world's goods and services will move to the developing world--leading to even more dangerously lopsided imbalances in trade and finance than exist today.

Changes in pension and tax laws are required so that business can more easily establish phased retirement programs that permit older employees to draw funds from their pension plans while continuing to work.

In just a few years, the aging workforce in the U.S. and abroad will become a central societal problem.  But there's no reason why it can't be turned into an opportunity as well.

Source: BusinessWeek, November 14, 2005, by Jeffrey E. Garten who is the Juan Trippe professor at The Yale School of Management

Reverse Mortgages

Lenders are expecting the Baby Boomer generation to borrow money with reverse mortgage loans that allow them to cash in on their home equity.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, a survey of 110 mortgage banking companies found that demand for reverse mortgages rose 28 percent in the first six months of 2005 from the second half of 2004.

"Reverse mortgages will be a growing product," said Ray Morris, director of business development at GMAC Mortgage Corp. "Baby Boomers will opt for the reverse mortgages. Sold to the right people, it is a great product."

Lenders also said they expect to increase efforts to lend to minorities and America's growing immigrant population.

"If you look at demographics, those are working in our favor. We have a fairly high-growth population," said Bill Beckmann, president and chief operating officer at CitiMortgage, a unit of Citigroup.

Source: The Journal News, November 5, 2005 www.thejournalnews.com

Getting Older Hurts

Getting older hurts -- and when it comes to exercise injuries, doctors say that's more the case than ever before.  Many are seeing increasing numbers of Baby Boomers with blown knees, sore backs, stiff shoulders and other complaints.

"The volume of people in their 40s, and even in their 30s, coming in with (knee) osteoarthritis is much higher than a decade ago," said Dr. Jess Lonner, director of knee-replacement surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. "It's a highly motivated generation that plays harder than a generation ago."

Sports injuries among Baby Boomers increased by 33 percent from 1991 to 1998, according to figures cited in a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report.  Baby Boomers in 1998 suffered more that 1 million sports injuries, to the tune of nearly $19 billion in medical costs, said the report from 2000, the most recent data available.

The highest numbers of sports-related injuries came from bicycling, basketball, baseball and running, according to the consumer report.  The most common injuries come from overuse and affect knees, ankles, lower back and shoulders.

Aging can't be avoided, but injuries can be.  And doctors say that doesn't mean all avid joggers must hang up their running shoes, or lifelong basketball players must necessarily forgo the neighborhood court -- it's all about exercising smarter.

Source: Exercise for boomers, www.CNN.com

Retirement Money Planning

Over the next two decades, the most chronicled generation in America will gradually enter retirement.   At that point, each wave of Baby Boomers will discover if their retirement plans, Social Security and personal savings will be sufficient money to maintain their existing lifestyles.

The need for financial planning help as Baby Boomers head for retirement is setting off a race among financial advisors.  The more pre-retirees they win over as clients, the more likely those clients will set up their individual retirement accounts with the money rolled over from employer-sponsored savings plans.  The more assets the advisor manages, the more potential for lucrative fees.

There is "an enormous wealth opportunity for advisors," says Martha Willis, executive vice president at Fidelity Investments' Institutional Services unit.  The Boston firm is one of a growing number of mutual-fund companies that hope to promote their funds by helping advisers reach retiring boomers.  In its recent survey of some 330 advisors, 94% of them singled out retirement-planning services as a main driver for their business over the next five years.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, November 2, 2005

Aging Like Fine Wine

Baby Boomers are finding ways to live, feel and look younger than the previous generation.

They are doing what generations in this age group have never done before; maintaining weight loss, improving physical health through exercise, going under the knife, sleeping well, traveling and rekindling their love lives.

By maximizing the best years of their lives, Baby Boomers are looking and acting ten years younger than their parents at the same age. 

Here are some tips to continue aging like fine wine:

For men: stay well shaven and continuously remove unwanted hair in your eyebrows, nose, ears and between your eyes.

For women: pay careful attention to your hands and wear stylish custom fit gloves in the winter, as your hands show your age faster than any other part of your body.   Enhance thinning eyebrows with a brow brush and powder just a shade lighter than your natural hair color (thicker brows make you look younger).  Replace your bifocals with Bausch & Lomb's SofLens Multifocal contact lenses to look more like a hot mamma than a grandma.  Natural-looking make-up complements your hair and skin tones.  Update your accessories; having modern jewelry helps you look younger.

For both: Reduce the dark circles under your eyes with a lighter concealer or make-up.   Use anti-aging cream on your face and hands.  Use a tooth whitener to increase your willingness to smile.  Keep your head high and your shoulders back to create a lasting impression.  Wear brighter colors that compliment your eye color.