Baby Boomers As Change Agents – They Modify Everything They Contact!
The Pig in the Python
For years, the Americans born shortly after World War II have been named “Baby Boomers”. According to the U.S. Census, a Baby Boomer is “someone born during the demographic birth boom between 1946 and 1964″.
This cohort includes nearly 80 million individuals with amazing buying potential.
A lot of us, particularly advertisers, consider this cluster of people to be a homogeneous one; nevertheless doing so is really a mistaken approach. Traditionally the class has been thought to be composed of agitators, as demonstrated by the period of the 60s (e.g., free love, peace-niks and war protesters), but large numbers of constituents are really very mainstream in their beliefs and behaviors.
People born within this timeframe are quite different in many respects: many (but not all) have children; some are grandparents and/or “empty-nesters;” others are never married, caring for an elderly parent, divorced, gay, or members of extended or alternate lifestyle families. Some are still full-time employed, some are retired, others addressing significant evaluation to retirement.
Transformers Change Everything They Contact
There is however, one characteristic that has defined this generation – they’re transformers. Because of the size of this group, and relative wealth, they have had a transformative effect upon living conditions and economy in the US over the past 6 decades. In fact, author Doug Owram has called Boomers “a shockwave,” and writer Landon Jones has referred to Boomers as “the pig in the python”.
This generation has transformed almost everything as they’ve moved through their teenage years, early adulthood, their jobs, the economy, etc. – and there is not any need to infer that they’ve stopped their morphing of our culture.
I am betting that the next realm to be revolutionized by this group is retirement.
I recall when I was a youngster, I thought anybody aged fifty, or more, was “old” but present-day, experts consider fifty to be the beginning of Early Middle Age, and agree that Old Age doesn’t start until age 75. Now, Americans at age 50 can expect to live another thirty five years, and therefore, be “retired” for twenty years or more – so what are they intending to do with all that leisure time?
During the past, the time of retirement was sometimes relatively short and distinguished by poor health, little money, and few decisions; however, for this cluster of nearly 80 million US people, those constraints no longer apply. In their 30’s, they gloated about “never growing old,” and now, it’s up to them to defend that claim.
What are they going to do with an extra two or three decades of active aging? Modern diet and health care have significantly extended that time period when people remain healthy and active (for instance, my mom is in her 90s, lives alone, and still drives her own vehicle).
How Retirement Is Being Modified
Are the so-called “Boomers” going to be content to drag out the rocking chair, sit on their veranda, and see the world pass them by? I suspect not!
In general, individuals of this generation are on the path to self-actualization (as Maslow used the term):
* A lot of them have tons of things they need to accomplish yet in their lives.
* Considering they’ll have 20-30 years of time to fill, they will be interested in a wide variety of leisure activities (e.g, travel, golfing, at-home entertainment).
* As a result of all this time, they also want to keep healthy enough to enjoy that time – so they’ll be very interested in products and services that may help them remain healthy and robust.
* A lot of them will really “reinvent” their jobs – beginning that career or occupation they’ve always dreamed about, but had to put off due to relationship or other duties.
* Lots of them will create their own businesses, and the web gives then many opportunities they’ve never had before.
* Training, acquiring knowledge and things that may provide them with time liberty will be high priorities for this group of financially comfortable Americans.
How can you allocate that time between work and play? Are there dreams that you have postponed for a long time but wish to realize throughout your “retirement”?
If you are one of those people wanting to start your own firm, think about starting an affiliate or other online business – but be advised that the difficulty with most online businesses is that their coaching tends to be superficial. Unfortunately, you will need more education than they normally offer. One very good place to start attaining the knowledge that you’ll need is to enroll in the Online Success for Beginners class.