The Richest Generation in U.S. History Just Keeps Getting Richer

[Purveyor]

Baby boomers started turning 65 in 2011, marking the unofficial beginning of their retirement years. The timing could not have been better for older boomers, who are already part of the wealthiest generation in U.S. history. Since then, the broad S&P 500-stock index is up 91 percent, including dividends. U.S. stocks hit a record high yesterday.

Market performance in the early years of retirement is a crucial worry for anyone living off a nest egg. In the worst-case scenario, stocks crash just as retirees start spending their savings, leaving them in a hole they can no longer earn their way out of.

Older boomers have experienced what is arguably the best-case scenario: The S&P 500 has returned 269 percent since its March 2009 low. As a recent study in the Journal of Financial Planning shows, wealthy retirees can be very cautious about spending down their savings. This instinct, along with the stock market’s new record, suggests that many boomers are likely to end up with far more money than they know what to do with.

Researchers followed the spending and investing behavior of 65- to 70-year-olds from 2000 to 2008. The poorest 40 percent of the survey respondents generally spent more than they earned, according to the study, which was funded by Texas Tech University. Those in the middle were able to keep their spending at about 8 percent below what they could have safely spent from pensions, investments, and Social Security.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-12/the-richest-generation-in-u-s-history-just-keeps-getting-richer

[dubyadiprecession]

1. well, you have to feel sorry for the down and out billionaires like Train wreck trump...

The system is rigged against him, as he keeps saying. Poor fellow can't catch a break from the establishment.

[guillaumeb]

2. This should be titled,

Once again, the top 1% are getting even richer at the expense of the bottom 99%.


They talk about "wealthy retirees" and "many boomers are likely to end up with far more money than they know what to do with" without mentioning that most boomers, like most people of all ages, face financial insecurity. There is a reason so many seniors are working far past retirement age, and it is not because they are reinventing themselves as painters and starting exciting new businesses. Most working seniors I see are working minimum wage service industry jobs.

[Warpy]

3. That would be me, but I know what to do with it

I'm living on interest and dividends and when I kick the bucket, Doctors Without Borders will end up with the principal. If the system holds together for another 5 years or so, they'll get a decent chunk of change. I couldn't think of a better place to put it.

Children of Boomers will end up with it when others die. I just hope parents are being generous now. The world sucks even more for most of the people who were born after us. At least we got to experience the last year of the New Deal, when low wages supported us.

[bemildred]

4. I was born right at the end of WWII.

The son of a "Greatest Generation" mother and a father that fought in WWI.

I have two things to say:

1.) The greatest generation took damn good care of themselves

2.) And they took pretty good care of their kids (me) until we rejected the Vietnam war, since then they have been doing their best to just take damn good care of themselves.