The big news these days is that the baby boomers are entering retirement. This is big news because the baby boomer generation (those born from 1946-1964) is so huge. Why 1946? Because that is when the second world war (1941-1945) ended, the soldiers came home, and they started making babies. No other time in our history have so many children been born and lumped together in a group as the baby boomer generation. Now that these people are getting older and entering retirement, they are facing the problems that all people have faced when they get to the magic age of sixty-five. Except that, now, this group is experiencing the worst economic downturn since the 1930′s Depression. We are in a depression now (though the government is not honest enough to say so) and the seniors are feeling it. Here’s a few things to consider:

1) Retirement savings, that have been built up over long working careers, are disappearing just when this generation would be starting to utilize them. Market downturns have been down too long and too deep to allow seniors to recoup losses. There just isn’t enough time left to build up savings vehicles. Retirement is a time when conservative choices are necessary to preserve one’s capital. The thinking is aimed at keeping what you have saved, rather than going into volatile funds in hopes of building a fortune.

2) Pensions are a thing of the past. In earlier times one of the features of staying at a job for twenty years or more was a pension plan. This was a great perk because, after you spent a couple decades being loyal to the company, you got the reward of a steady paycheck after you retired. This was a good incentive for the employees to stay with the company, and the company benefitted because it retained workers who were proud of their employer. Unfortunately, corporate greed and corrupt politicians decided that they could grab more money for themselves by cutting out all pensions; the workers would have to fend for themselves after retirement; the company didn’t care about them anymore. For the most part, the folks who are in their seventies these days are the last remnants of any kind of pension plans that used to exist for almost everyone. The companies found it difficult to retain good workers, employee loyalty plummeted, and the companies have become little more than turn styles for people leapfrogging their way to better hourly pay. No loyalty, decreased production, and overall apathy. Stupid.

3) Home values decreasing. Real Estate, that rock solid staple that we could all rely upon, is all but gone. The bubble burst. In the old days a person’s house was one area where equity could be accrued. When it was time to move, you could get a good price for your home and then apply it to a better home elsewhere. Nowadays people are seeing the value of their homes disappear. Houses are much more difficult to sell because not many people can afford to buy. With house prices down, you have less equity to apply to a new purchase; banks are closing up shop in some cases and they are making the getting of a loan more and more difficult.

4) No job market. Anyone looking to get a job these days is really hurting. If you have lost your retirement funds, and your house is worth less, you might opt to go back to work to help with the finances. Good plan, but it won’t work as well as it used to in the past. Back in the sixties, if you wanted to work, you picked up the newspaper, turned to the help wanted section, and chose the job that you wanted. This section of the paper was several pages in length; there were hundreds of jobs to choose from. Today it is a different story. The help wanted section is more like a half page in length and the jobs are almost impossible to get. Back in the sixties, when you made up a resume, you printed one or two copies because it only took one try, and maybe a few days to find a good job. Today resumes are printed up in stacks of a hundred or more and it may take months to secure a position. Online resumes are sent all over the world and you may never secure a position.

5) Health care is heading down the drain. The older we get, the more we see our bodies breaking down and in need of repair. Unfortunately, in America there is no health care system. Instead we have a sick care system. There is no way to prevent problems for the population, we wait until someone gets sick and then we try to attack the disease. This inefficient policy is backwards; it doesn’t work. Our government is trying to take away (or diminish) Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and it wants to shift the burden of payment to the senior population. In view of the fact that seniors are in one of the worst financial circumstances possible, their homes are worth less, jobs are gone, pensions gone, and their retirement savings are decimated, how will they pay higher amounts to keep themselves healthy?

One possible alternative is to live smaller. We have always been encouraged to "live large", to spend like there’s no tomorrow, live on credit. No one realized that the only people who benefit when the population lives like that is the corporate bigwigs and the politicians. Spending more than you have (as in credit spending) is not only unadvisable, it is the surest way to lose everything, including your life. Instead, we can be smarter than the greedy politicians. Reject all the advertisements that tell you how to be sexy, rich, and famous. Most of us will never be these things anyway, and these ideals are false and not all that they are presented. Be who you are, get your finances in order, live sensibly. Develop in yourself an attribute that has long been forgotten: common sense, the ability to think for yourself and to make good choices. Your health, and your very life, depend upon it.