Peer backlash against us?

[bbbamI]

The old hippie in me says we should buy a Harley and chill out.

Here's mine....

 

[crispus]

And the boomer bashing continues in the New York Times' "Boomers Hit New Self-Absorption Milestone: Age 65." Is this what we have to look forward to from now on? "Journalism" at its worst.

"Ascribing personality traits to a bloc of 79 million people is a fool’s endeavor," he writes. Yet, the article attempts to do just that. The writer (a 1958-born boomer, as it turns out) also seems very enamored of witless turns of phrase, as in his description of the boomers' final stage:

Look if I could go back to age 30 and have the choice of weather to invest my money instead of SS along with the company match, what do you think I would do? Now we are stuck with SS, and we are being told that we are selfish. It's the government that's the problem. I know I won't go silently if my DW and I get a major cut in benefits. We both were promised and need that income in order to have a modest retirement.

 

[Nords]

Funny thing is I hated Disco back in the day. I kinda look at it in a cool, retro, fond way now. Go figure.

Music? There was music playing in those places?!? I never noticed...

1. I've decided to take a year or two off to write the novel I've always wanted to but never had the time;

2. DW wants to go back to work but one of us needs to be home to help the children with their homework;

3. I've been reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and realise that jobs are for suckers.

... and to continue Brewer's list of ways to get people to leave you alone,
7. "Say, would you happen to know where I can borrow a couple hundred bucks? I should be able to pay it back in the next month or two..."

 

[Purron]

Here's mine....

Yeah baby. Life's too short. Just sayin'

 

[RAE]

I was down at the local tavern the other night with some friends, most of whom are either current fed. govt. employees, or retired fed. govt. employees (like me). The owner of the place (who I know fairly well) made some crack about "all you govt. workers who get to retire at age 45". He knows that I'm 55 (and just retired, after 31 years of work), and there were several other folks in our group older than me who are still working, but he felt compelled to make the remark anyway (and it was part joking, but part serious too). Funny thing is that the guy who made the remark is about 50 or so, runs one of the most profitable businesses in town (for many years now), and so I'm quite sure his income is far higher than mine ever was. So he's not exactly someone who is struggling to make ends meet, althought I have no idea what his savings habits are. It just struck me as odd, in a way, that this guy would express envy (or at least apparent envy) at my situation, because of the age that I was able to retire at. I think people are reading all these articles lately about govt. workers pulling down these ridiculously high pensions while retiring in their 40's or something (all supposedly at taxpayer expense), and it's getting to them.

 

[freebird5825]

Here's mine....

Ok, that's IT.

I'm just plain sick and tired of seeing these extravagant midlife crisis toys that were patiently saved up for.

You should have spent that money on a big screen TV, a computer in every room, a McMansion, and daily *bucks triple steamed latte mocha whatever.


Heeheeheee

 

[crispus]

I am still waiting on that Harley. Maybe the next life.

 

[youbet]

I think people are reading all these articles lately about govt. workers pulling down these ridiculously high pensions while retiring in their 40's or something (all supposedly at taxpayer expense), and it's getting to them.

Or they just like jerking your chain.........

You might be taking cracks made down at the local tavern a bit too much to heart.

 

[scrabbler1]

As a few others in this very interesting thread born around the same time as I was(1963), I do not consider myself a Baby-Boomer.

When I first heard the term back in the 1980s, it was more fully named and described as "Post-War Baby Boomers" referring to those people who were born after WW2 and whose fathers served in WW2. My dad was born in 1931 and was therefore too young to serve in WW2. (He was drafted to serve in the Korean War but never saw actual combat duty.) I first heard the age range for Baby Boomers extended only to 1960, not 1964.

I have therefore always thought of myself as a Gen-Xer, along with my younger brother who was born in 1968 and is without a doubt a Gen-Xer.

My parents were not spendy people, probably because they spent a good portion of their childhoods in the Depression and in WW2. They were good at saving and instilled those values in my brother and I. As a result, we are not and have never been financial burdens on them in our adult lives. My mother handled the family finances and before she died in 1995 at the too-young age of 59, she made sure my dad was set up well for the retirement he had just begun in 1994 at age 63.

 

[traineeinvestor]

I was down at the local tavern the other night with some friends, most of whom are either current fed. govt. employees, or retired fed. govt. employees (like me). The owner of the place (who I know fairly well) made some crack about "all you govt. workers who get to retire at age 45". He knows that I'm 55 (and just retired, after 31 years of work), and there were several other folks in our group older than me who are still working, but he felt compelled to make the remark anyway (and it was part joking, but part serious too). Funny thing is that the guy who made the remark is about 50 or so, runs one of the most profitable businesses in town (for many years now), and so I'm quite sure his income is far higher than mine ever was. So he's not exactly someone who is struggling to make ends meet, althought I have no idea what his savings habits are. It just struck me as odd, in a way, that this guy would express envy (or at least apparent envy) at my situation, because of the age that I was able to retire at. I think people are reading all these articles lately about govt. workers pulling down these ridiculously high pensions while retiring in their 40's or something (all supposedly at taxpayer expense), and it's getting to them.

You could have asked him how much of that pension money got spent at his fine establishment.

 

[donheff]

Or they just like jerking your chain.........

You might be taking cracks made down at the local tavern a bit too much to heart.

+1 Even though I started this thread I still think most peoples' reactions are more along the lines of "good for you, smart move," along with some good natured cracks with a touch of envy. That touch of Fed pension envy is OK. During the 80s and 90s I heard and read an awful lot of sneering about suboptimal choices to go with lousy paying public service careers.