I first became aware of a popular style of financial news article about a year ago. It promoted the idea that Millennials didn’t need to worry about money because their Baby Boomer parents would soon be retiring and the “biggest wealth transfer” in history would begin to occur.
I used to laugh heartily at those stories because my mother, who belongs to the Silent Generation (the generation that precedes the Baby Boomers and numbers about 20 million in America), is still alive. I used to think to myself, “Pretty wishful thinking, there, everyone, I’m pretty sure most of the Baby Boomers are still going to be alive twenty (if not thirty) years from now.”
And the Baby Boomers’ years of retirement and long-term care? Those will be costly and protracted years.
Though I haven’t thought about it much lately, I recently heard a tale on this same truth on the Marketplace radio show. The reporter mentioned Sue, the grandmother of her spouse, in the piece. Sue’s spouse passed away when she was in her late 80s. Consequently, her spouse, the reporter’s grandson, had to take over managing her funds and providing assistance to her. The grandma promised that he would inherit everything from her when she passed away in exchange.
Only two thousand dollars remained for the grandma to leave to her grandson when she passed away, almost ten years later.
If people believed they would make two thousand dollars working for ten years straight, they wouldn’t pursue a job — especially one that is frequently anxious and stressful, like assisting an elderly person with long-term care and financial decisions. Pennies would be used to express the hourly wage rate. The writer went on to say that their family was fortunate in that the grandmother had saved a substantial amount of money for her retirement and nursing requirements. As a result, the grandson and his family did not have to pay for the grandmother’s care out of pocket. (Which for some families is a very real possibility.)
This is not to suggest, however, that the only reason we ever tend to others is because we are paid to carry out. However, if families become more and more separated by physical distances — such as when —
