So Baby Boomer: Life Tips

Target of Marketers

"Age is only a number, a cipher for the records.  A man can’t retire his experience.  He must use it.  Experience achieves more with less energy and time."  Bernard Baruch

Baby Boomers have been a darling for marketers over the years.  But as they ease into their golden years -- more than half are 50 or older -- marketers are a bit puzzled at how to engage this diverse group.

"Boomers have set the market stage ever since they've been in existence," said Michael Bernacchi, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy who studies automotive marketing. "But now that they are older, marketers are putting on the brakes and asking, 'How are we going to market to them?' "

And there's a lot at stake.  At 77 million strong in the U.S. alone, boomers are a consumer force to be reckoned with.

Consider these facts:

* Boomers represent $2.1 trillion in annual spending power.
* Boomers ages 50 to 60 have double the spending power of those 60 to 70 years old.
* 80 percent of boomers say they will work past 60.
* Their life expectancy is an all-time high of 77.4 years.

"They by far are the most affluent and spend-worthy generation in the history of mankind," said Bernacchi.

A smattering of companies are starting to pay attention, such as Michelob Ultra's ad featuring a graying boomer paddling around in a kayak, or an American Express' financial services ad saying: "You changed everything that came before you.  That was you then ... that's still you now."

Source: www.AutoSpectator.com, May 17, 2006

Not Thinking Retirement

Most people are beginning to think about retirement at the age of 60. However, a growing trend among Baby Boomers is, instead of retiring, launching new careers.

Emily Allen, who manages workforce programs for AARP, said more Baby Boomers are making dramatic career shifts.   "Our studies show that one in four boomers indicated that they want to do something completely different," she said. "We're certainly seeing trends, particularly as we begin to look at different industries. We are seeing people are taking a look at kind of nontraditional industries, such as the transportation industry, changing from the corporate world in to a nonprofit world, going from corporate world in to education."

Source: www.nbc4.com May 22, 2006

Phased retirement jobs

A majority of Baby Boomers say they want to work in retirement, but U.S. companies are only just beginning to try to figure out how to accommodate that, according to a new study.

A survey conducted for financial services firm Merrill Lynch & Co. found that 71 percent of adults hope to work in retirement, with many looking for part-time jobs or an opportunity to move in and out of the work force---perhaps, during a period as a long as 10 years.

Earning money is just one of the reasons, and it ranks third, the study found. The two leading reasons are to remain mentally and physically active, and many want to try new professions.

Most employers, meanwhile, aren't ready for the shift that could affect thousands of their workers, given that the oldest of the 77 million-strong baby boom generation turn 60 this year.

Asked how prepared their companies were for boomers reaching retirement age, just 24 percent said their companies were "on track" to deal with the retirements. Some 27 percent said they were "in the midst of preparing," 17 percent said they were just getting started, and 31 percent said their companies hadn't given it much thought.

Source: Houston Chronicle, May 18, 2006

Bypass the operation?

Each year, doctors perform 400,000 bypass surgeries and 1 million angioplasties, where mesh tubes are placed in diseased arteries to hold them open.

While most people believe that such surgery is life-saving, the available data say otherwise.

Except for about 3% of people with severe heart disease, treatment with drugs alone works just as well to extend life and prevent heart attacks as surgery does.  "Cardiologists like to open up arteries," says Dr. David D. Waters, chief of cardiology at San Francisco General Hospital.  "But there is no evidence that opening up chronically narrowed arteries reduces the risk of heart attack."

Harvard Medical School's Dr. Roger J. Laham figures that at least 400,000 angioplasties a year are unnecessary.  "I'm sure we are way overtreating our patients," he says.  Surgery carries big risks, such as mental declines after bypass operations.  The overuse is exacting a big toll on individual patients and the health-care system, argue such experts as Dr. Nortin M. Hadler, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Source: BusinessWeek, May 29, 2006

Shaking up the housing industry

According to the National Association of Home Builders’ 50+ Housing Council, the Baby Boomer generation is shaking up the housing industry by discarding old notions about the “retirement lifestyle” and allowing buyers to create their own distinct communities.

Norman Cohen, chairperson of the 50+ Housing council and a principal at Camelot/Signature Development of Marietta, GA, said, “The Baby Boomer generation has changed the ways builders do business—homeowners are no longer looking for the traditional retirement communities—they want to live somewhere where they can remain active.”

The baby boom generation increasingly prefers to be able to “age in place” or continue living in their homes safely, independently and comfortably, regardless of age or ability level.  Unlike the generations before them, boomers don’t want to “get away from it all,” said Neil Howe, who delivered the Symposium’s keynote address.  They want to be near cultural and spiritual hubs that keep them connected with community and culture and involved in lifelong learning at local universities.

Howe added that because boomers, who make up 37 percent of all homeowners, are retiring at such varied ages, they’re in no hurry to move. When marketing to boomers, he recommended that builders do away with language about “retirement,” and instead stress that their products allow buyers to be engaged and employed.  In order to draw these buyers in, he says, builders should stress informality and spontaneity—boomers want to discover communities on their own, rather than buy into a planned development.

Boomer Parenting

As parents, boomers face their final frontier: how to stand aside as their children become independent adults.  Where's the line between caring and coddling?

Letting go.  Are there two more painful words in the boomer-parent lexicon? One minute, there's an adorable, helpless bundle in your arms.  Then, 18 years go by in a flash, filled with Mommy and Me classes, Gymboree, Little League, ballet, drama club, summer camp, traveling soccer teams, piano lessons, science competitions, SAT prep classes and college visits.  The next thing you know, it's graduation.

Most boomers don't want to be "helicopter parents," hovering so long that their offspring never get a chance to grow up.  But with cell phones and email available 24/7, the temptation to check in is huge.  Some boomer parents hang on, propelled by love and insecurity about how the world will treat their children.

Click here for the whole story.  Source: Newsweek, May 22, 2006 issue

The Condo Glut

The most troubled real estate sector, the one that will fall first and fastest, is the condominium market.

Typically cheaper than houses and easier to buy, sell or rent out, condos are catnip for investors.  Yet even as speculators flee, developers keep throwing up condos at a breakneck pace, in part because if they have already bought the land and poured the foundation, they have no choice but to finish the project.

Unsold condos are piling up.  Builders don't have the luxury of waiting out a slump; they need to sell for what they can get.  At first, they hold the line on base prices by offering incentives, from free pools to flat-screen TVs.  Then, as unsold units collect, they move merchandise with huge discounts.

Delinquencies are already rising rapidly for those who have to bail out.  They include not just investors but also owners who stretched their finances to buy the condo or house.  Since early 2005, delinquency rates have jumped almost 14% to 2.5% for prime mortgage loans.  "The banks will be forced to take back a lot of properties and sell them for the amount of the loan," says Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com.  "That will add to the already huge supply on the market."

Source: FORTUNE, May 15, 2006

Social Security Payments

Most people claim Social Security benefits as soon as they are eligible.

Among women applying for Social Security in 2004, over 70% were under age 65, while almost 67% of men took benefits early.  Ask retireees why they rushed to claim Social Security, some say it's the only way they could afford to retire or that delaying wasn't worthwhile, because their life expectancy is poor.  Others reckon they will fare better by claiming benefits early and investing the money or they figure they should get a few bucks out of the system before it collapses.

Let's say you were born between 1943 and 1954.  If you are eligible for $750 a month from Social Security at age 62, you could boost that to $1,000 by delaying benefits until age 66 and $1,320 by postponing until age 70.  These figures ignore Social Security's annual inflation adjustment.

How long would you have to live to make delaying benefits worthwhile?

If you were born between 1943 and 1954 and thus get an extra 33% for delaying until 66, the breakeven would fall at age 82.   As it happens, a 65-year-old man can now expect to live until age 82, on average, while a 65-year-old woman can expect to live until almost age 85.

The big risk is that you will live a long time and run through your retirement savings.  If that happens, getting a fat monthly check from Uncle Sam, because you delayed benefits, could be your financial salvation.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2006

Women Mentors

In a study of 500 women conducted by Shapiro Barash, a gender-studies professor at Marymount Manhattan College, 70% felt that male bosses treated them better than female bosses did.  Also, 65% of the women over age 50 admitted that they'd prefer to mentor women in their 20s instead of women in their late 30s or 40s.

The reason?  A female Baby Boomer is often uncomfortable helping a woman "who might get her job next," says Professor Barash.  Her research is detailed in a new book about women and rivalry, "Tripping the Prom Queen."

Some women are rethinking mentor/protegee relationships.  Women born before 1945 often worked primarily out of economic necessity, and less because it was a fulfilling life choice, says Mel Fugate, a professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business, who studies generational diversity in the work force.  That's why their advice doesn't always resonate with those born later.

Some powerful women in their 60s say they'd love to have older female role models.  But few women over age 70 ever headed companies, and their workplace experiences as, say, teachers and nurses don't translate to today's corporate world.  "My mentors used to be older men,: says Shirley Maddalena Edson, 62, who since 1976 has run her own interior-design firm in Birmingham, MI.  Now, hungry for feminine input, she turns to female designers in their 40s to be her role models.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2006

Boomer Women

Marketers across a broad range of industries have figured out that women influence 80 percent of consumer purchases.

Not only that, but they constitute the majority of the largest generational cohort in history—rich in numbers, purchasing power and potential.   Here’s a look at twelve tips gleaned from the overwhelmingly hot topic of marketing to Boomer women discussed at the recent Beyond the Numbers: The Boomer Marketing Summit, in Miami as reported by TheMatureMarket.com.

1. While Boomer women have greater discretionary income than any generation in U.S. history, they are more worried about their financial health than those who are already 60+.

2. On a related theme, according to Deborah Natansohn, President of Seabourn Cruises, with all the talk of Boomers inheriting wealth, in reality the average American may inherit only 25-50K—not the millions they wish they’d be getting.

3. AARP is rapidly becoming an organization of Boomers.  With 11.5 million Boomer members, it is already the largest Boomer organization in the world.

4. Forget about the notion that Baby Boomers have long-established their brand preferences.

5. Chuck Hurst, Research Director for JWT Mature Market Group, reveals that in a study of 25 to 75 year olds, those 50 to 54 experienced more life changing events and transitions in the past five years than any other age group.

6. At this stage in their lives, Boomers are interested in experiences, not things for the sake of having things.

7. More magazine disclosed that in their recent study, women 40 to 59 spend more than women 21 to 39 on perfume, computers, jewelry and watches, home improvement and luxury autos.

8. Be wary of pushing the Boomer woman to “join” your community.

9. The majority of middle-aged Boomer women have more parents than children.

10. Half of the approximately 70 million grandparents in the U.S. are Baby Boomers.  Fifty percent of these have five or more grandkids.

11. Older women with daughters are statistically shown to out-live older women who only have sons.

12. Finally, according to Mike Sullivan, President of 50+ Communications, when trying to sell something to a Boomer woman, remember: she's always going to think she's smarter than you.