Are Boomers the greediest, most-selfish generation ever? Or are we misjudging them?
Most people have conveniently forgotten that, before the Boomers term came into wide usage, the Boomers called themselves the “Me Generation”. Through the ’70s, the Boomers increasingly gave themselves over to unbridled narcissism – “finding myself” became the catchword – and hedonism. Divorce rates peaked through the ’70s to the ’80s, as the Boomers realised that all this raising kids stuff was, like, hard work, man. And if there’s one thing Boomers, from their hippy days on, are averse to, it’s hard work.
Yeah, yeah, ‘We worked hard for what we’ve got…’ Spare me. Your parents worked hard, to give Boomers a safe, prosperous world (which they promptly sneered at and set about dismantling), not to mention the largest generational wealth-transfer in history. What their parents didn’t hand them on a silver platter, the Boomers ‘earned’ merely by virtue of the capital gains on the cheap houses they bought in the ’70s and ’80s.
Are they going to pass it on to their kids? Tell ’em they’re dreamin’.
Millennial and Gen Z heirs are eagerly anticipating a $90 trillion “great wealth transfer” as they inherit their parents’ wealth – however, many are set to be disappointed as just one-fifth of baby boomers expect to leave anything behind […]
Today, more than half of America’s wealth belongs to baby boomers, with most of it tied to their real estate as they hold off downsizing.
It’s perhaps why over half of Gen Zers and nearly 60% of millennials reported that they’re depending on their inheritance to achieve financial security and retire in comfort.
Ha, ha, ha… good one, kids.
Haven’t you listened to the Boomers bragging about “SKIing”? Spending the Kids’ Inheritance.
If they’re not spending your inheritence on interminable cruises and behemoth RVs, they’re blowing it on the same sort of lefty crap ‘causes’ the Boomers have weaponised against Western civilisation since the 1960s.
That’s because over half of the boomers surveyed are explicitly planning not to leave an inheritance behind. What’s more, only 11% of boomers said leaving something for the kids is their top financial goal […] there’s a growing cohort of people trying to die with zero – essentially, enjoy all their wealth while they are still alive and die with $0 in their bank account […]
They’re using their hard-earned cash to enjoy life to the fullest, including trips to Mexico and the music festival Glastonbury – rather than take it to the grave after decades of working hard.
“Hard.”
“If you have money now do good now – don’t wait until you’re dead,” Elena Nunez Cooper, who plans to pay for her friend’s honeymoon and splash out on charitable causes, recently told Fortune.
“Do good.” In other words, dress up like grey-haired clowns and witter about ‘climate change’ and ‘refugees welcome’.
The other great beneficiary of the Boomers’ vast wealth are likely to be retirement homes and nursing hospitals.
Still, much as I enjoy it, I shouldn’t be entirely too hard on the Boomers’ spendthrift ways. Some, at least, are using the “don’t wait until your dead” philosophy to actually do something for their kids.
Although the majority of Gen Z and millennials probably won’t benefit from the Great Wealth Transfer, a sizable chunk of the generation is already dipping into their inheritance while their parents are still around anyway.
Because if there’s any generation more selfish and work-shy (not to mention just plain annoying) than the Boomers, it’s their offspring, the Millennials.
Research shows that more than a third of young people who are planning to buy a home expect their parents, or family, to help with their down payment in the form of a cash gift.
Meanwhile, separate data shows that millennials are more likely than the generations before them to have dipped into the bank of Mom and Dad to become homeowners.
What’s more, financially supporting your adult children doesn’t stop at helping them get on the property ladder.
According to Pew Research Center, a third of millennials in their early thirties are still being bankrolled by their parents, who are paying off their everyday expenses and streaming subscriptions.
Anecdotally, I know Millennial kidults – in their late 30s, with degrees and high-paying jobs – who are still mooching on their Boomer parents to pay their bills, even as they go on annual (or more often) overseas trips.
Maybe the Boomers really can find better uses for their money.
