Kayla+S.+-+DC+-+SP12


 * Kayla Smith **
 * “How Retirement Attitudes of Baby-Boomers and Gen-Xers Differ” **
 * Feb. 15, 2012 **

Baby boomers are those born in the years 1964 to 1964. Generation-Xers are those born in the years 1965 to 1979. Even though the two generations are similar in age, they have many differences in their retirement paths. Between early boomers, late boomers, and Gen-Xers, early boomers have the most amount of people with more than $250,000 saved for retirement. This may seem substantial, but many boomers wonder if they have enough saved to meet their standard of living as retirees. Gen-Xers have proved to be more confident in their savings. They are more likely to take higher risks when they invest in their retirement savings. Also, the boomers have a higher percentage of individuals who have already used some of their retirement savings, and of people who have stopped adding to their savings than the Gen-Xers.
 * __Summary__ **

Baby boomers are retiring very soon. This is a concern to society because they may not be saving enough money to support their finance when they retire. Even though most boomers have a higher wealth than their parents did at the same age, the boomers are preparing for retirement at basically the same pace as their parents. A quarter of baby boomer families do not have significant savings, meaning they’ll have to rely on the benefits of the government once they retire ("The Retirement"). Because the boomers are soon to retire, many U.S. companies will suffer a great loss. Over a quarter of U.S. businesses have barely started planning for their aging employees. In the next ten years, the demographics of the workplace will change drastically. Younger workers will have less experience, taking a huge toll on businesses. Research has shown that boomers of retirement age are more likely to stay working if they can provide more flexible working hours (Schweitzer).
 * __Relevance__ **

The article focused on retirement patterns of the baby boomers and the Gen-Xers. However, within the next 10 years baby boomers will be retiring. Gen-Xers still have about 20 years left to work. The article didn’t discuss how the Gen-Xers are planning on adjusting to the baby boomers’ retirement. Are they prepared? Are they experienced enough to carry on the job? The baby boomers had children, known as Generation Y, or Echo Boomers. Those born in Generation Y were born between the years 1982-2000. They are the youngest generation in the workforce at this time. Are they being focused on (Wikipedia)? They are going to be the young workers that will hurt U.S. companies due to their lack of experience. Are they taking initiative in training? Furthermore, there are baby boomers that haven’t saved enough money for retirement and will have to rely on government benefits. Why don’t they seek financial help and try to do something about their situation instead of letting other individuals’ tax dollars cover for them? They might want to be more proactive.
 * __Evaluation__ **


 * __Questions__ ****
 * 1) How can baby boomers find ways to increase their savings for retirement?
 * 2) Can Medicare handle all the baby boomers?
 * 3) Is it really beneficial to the country as a whole to keep retirement aging baby boomers as employees?
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Are other countries experiencing this same problem?
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Will social security checks be enough to pick up the slack in baby boomers’ lack of savings?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Bibliography__ **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Appleby, Denise. "How Retirement Attitudes Of Baby-Boomers And Gen-Xers Differ." SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/02/14/investopedia74326.DTL >.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Baby boomer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Boomer>.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Schweitzer, Tamara. "Retiring Baby Boomers Expected to Hurt U.S. Companies ." Inc.. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <www.inc.com/news/articles/200703/boomers.html >.


 * <span style="background-color: #efefef; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #efefef; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"The Retirement Prospects of the Baby Boomers." Congressional Budget Office - Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=5195&type=0>.