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By Iris Winston
Boom, Boom,
Booming into
Retirement
Two timelines, two priorities
This is a significant year for both Fifty-Five Plus and the primary target market population
that reads our magazine. This issue marks the 20th anniversary for our
publication. As well, Canada’s baby boomers — the huge population wave born
from 1946 to 1965 — have begun to turn 60. Being a publication that focuses its
content on this population, we thought it would be fun to take a look at how this
important demographic group has changed and will continue to influence the
economy, decisions and trends.
Remember the 1960s when hippies talked about making love not war?
Remember the admonition not to trust anyone over 30? Could these views
have been espoused by affluent baby boomers, the influential group that has
left its mark on every aspect of its generation?
Time, it seems, is giving baby boomers new priorities. In just two years, baby
boomers will be reaching the age of 65 at the rate of 10,000 per day.As the first wave
of boomers heads into retirement, the younger members of the group are sandwiched
between concerns for their children and their parents.
“When you are dealing with a group that covers 18 or 19 years,the group at the
front end has very little in common with the group at the back end,”points out David
Cork, a director with Ottawa-based ScotiaMcleod.A boomer himself, the 48-year-old
specializes in the impact of demographics on social and economic life. David, coauthor
of the bestselling The Pig and the Python: How to prosper from the aging
baby boom, says,“Someone born in 1947 has very little in common with someone
born in 1965. So the priorities of the different age groups are different.”
For the older boomers, those born in the 1940s and early 1950s,“security is a
huge issue,”he points out.This group with its sights fixed on retirement is “just at the
age where cash-flow security into retirement is number one.”
Older boomers focus on property, pensions and investments as ways to obtain
their financial security in retirement. Many purchase one or more vacation properties,
as well as investing in retirement savings plans and the stock market through
their working lives.
“Significant amounts of wealth were created in this country since the end of the
Second World War and we are now seeing the results,” says David.“A massive wealth
transfer is taking place. So, there’s the element of wealth storage. When you have
September 2008 • 10 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
“Most of the latter half
of the baby-boomer
generation have their
parents around and are
still worrying about
putting their kids
through university…”