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Peak Burden

July 6, 2025 By admin

person carrying a heavy load up a mountainNo one would blame you if you’re one of the people who thought “peak burden” is when you’re exhausted from carrying around a mountain. Alas (a word that should be used more often), the phrase refers to rapidly approaching “peak 65” when the youngest boomers turn age 65.

Who cares? Maybe you should if you’re on the leading edge of the generation. We (the leading edge we) are mostly prepared for retirement if we have not already done so. The peak 65 group? Not so much.

Around 53% of “peak boomers,” who will turn 65 between 2024 and 2030, have less than $250,000 in assets, a new study found. Research also indicates that more than a quarter of the workers that are nearing retirement have no savings and few years left to put some money away.

Bottom line, peak boomers will be hard pressed to maintain their standard of living in retirement. That in turn means they will rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. It’s estimated that one-third of these younger boomers will rely on Social Security benefits for at least 90% of their retirement income when they are 70.

You should already know that Social Security was never meant to be a retiree’s total income. More like 40%. The idea was that it would supplement what retirees had managed to save over the years in a bank account or 401k. The average benefit is $23,000 per year, which is hardly enough for a comfortable retirement. It’s more like a small step up from sleeping on the street in a cardboard box.

How or why should the peak burden worry older boomers? The stress put on the economy by these peak burden retirees will impact everyone. Productivity could slow as they leave the workforce. Likewise, consumer spending could decrease as they lack the funds to spend. In effect, everyone could feel some pain, not just the peak burden people.

There’s a saying that pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Not buying it. Many retirees could be seeing some hard times ahead.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Filed Under: ESSAY

Precious

July 6, 2025 By admin

silver jewelryI have some nice jewelry – not diamonds or gold – mostly unique silver pieces from when we lived in Egypt and silver, turquoise, coral and sugilite from the American southwest. I viewed them as wear-to-work or out-for-dinner, and I’m not doing much of either these days. My retirement wardrobe is functional and not particularly stylish.

For some reason, I worry about what happens to our stuff when we die. We have wills and all that, but there’s this weird dark side of me that considered selling everything little by little, so that by the time we die, all the good stuff will be gone. My dad used to sell our toys if we took a bathroom break, so I’m thinking this may be another oddity from the gene pool.

So, yes, I thought about selling my jewelry, among other household items, but silver isn’t all that valuable and I don’t really want to part with the stones. As they say, you can’t take it with you. I’ve decided to start wearing it, possibly even adopting the look of a crazy lady who wears all her jewelry at once. By the way, this does align with my vision of pretending I am a Bohemian heiress who spends her later years dabbling in what amuses her.

I’ve always leaned minimalist, and it was not hard to follow Coco Chanel’s advice about removing one piece before you leave the house. Why not add one piece before leaving the house? Or two? I’ve also decided items I reserved for special occasions can now come out to play. Kind of like using your good china, because it’s just sitting there otherwise.

My silver concho belt with a rash guard and denim shorts? Birkenstocks? Why not? I shined up the belt and wore it to the grocery store. We were walking down the aisle, and Dale said, “That belt looks beautiful.” Wow, so that was worth it, right?

The bad news is I need to polish up the rest of my silver, but I’m excited about wearing some pieces that have been tucked away for quite a while. And wondering how I am going to mix it up … unusual combinations I hadn’t previously considered.

I’m also thinking about new ways to wear some of the work clothes I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of. And, oh, those cowboy boots from Texas.

If we do it right, retirement can be all about freedom. Maybe with aging, we lose the fear of being judged. Wear what you want, think what you want, say what you want, do what you want.

Just live your life. Wear the jewelry, use the good china.

(Rerun from the Best of BoomSpeak)

Donna Pekar is an aging badass (for real) who lives in California and writes Retirement Confidential.

Filed Under: ESSAY

Thanks Smartphones

June 22, 2025 By admin

man lured by evil smartphoneTurns out that smartphones have ruined us. Maybe not baby boomers so much, but smartphones have had an adverse effect on us as well. According to a boatload of different studies, many of the skills we had have bitten the dust. Here’s a sampling.

Great Memory – We used to know other people’s phone numbers and addresses. Now, we’re lucky if we can recall our own. Excessive screen time (you’re watching TV while scrolling on your phone – we all do it now) has a negative affect on cognitive ability, memory, concentration and focus.

Reading Social Cues – Boomers grew up with many face-to-face experiences. Our ability to read body language helped us to make friends in-person, and feel comfortable in social situations and job interviews. Younger generations avoid in-person interaction and hide behind those little screens.

Focus – Growing up before smartphones came along, we were able to be more productive when it came to truly concentrating on a task. That was before a harmless notification “ding” could sabotage whatever we were trying to focus on and drop everything to check on who was contacting us.

Patience – It should be obvious, but the immediacy of smartphones has killed our ability to wait things out. It’s a now world now. We have to respond ASAP to every email and text.

Silence – We were capable of sitting in solitude without external stimuli but younger generations raised on smartphones have no clue what that was like.

Entertaining oneself – We had no choice. There were often times when reading a book or taking a walk was a far better experience than checking in on Facebook.

Great handwriting – We’ve been here before. There’s hardly anyone left who can write longhand (or knows what that word means).

Independent thinking – There was a time when we came to our opinions based on discussion and debate along with a healthy serving of news. Social media promotes a groupthink that stifles original thought.

Delayed gratification – Social media is in the moment so what’s the point of waiting to do something if you can have it NOW.

Storytelling – Sure, there is storytelling on line, but it’s not the same as face to face sharing that can bond people together.

Resourcefulness – It’s just too hard to ignore the allure of social media when that distraction is so tempting. Boomers had to overcome problems and develop a routine on their own, without cribbing ideas off the internet.

The bottom line is that we may have been better off in terms of intellectual and personal development, but we’re just as vulnerable when it comes to the harm a life lived on top of smartphone can do. It could be time to put it down for a whole day and see what happens (after you get over the panic of not knowing where it is).

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Filed Under: ESSAY

Barbie Plus

June 22, 2025 By admin

Barbie doll at the beachI’ve seen her walk by our beach lately. Probably a neighbor. She looks like Barbie would look, twenty-five years later. She must have realized I was watching and smiled a ‘you’re a safe old-fart smile’ at me.

She squats in the gravel windrow along the shoreline to grab a shot of the roiling surf. Probably using her cell phone to show all her ‘best friends forever.’ I shake my head. Why do I dismiss her, not take her seriously? Could it be her resemblance to the iconic doll? Her multiple toe rings, nails painted with little American flags

Stop it, I tell myself. What makes me so special? Me, who could be her father, and she who could have my grandkids? Am I that prejudiced, that simple-minded in my evaluation of people? What does she have to do, use five syllable words to impress me? Show me her diploma?

I ease out of my beach chair to join her. As I get closer I can see that she is using a DSLR with a zoom lens. Huh. I stand behind her a moment as she brackets ten shots. Digital cameras! You can just shoot and shoot and shoot, but you still have to edit sometime, go through every shot and cull the best. Might as well do it beforehand. God, I sound like some old duffer… ‘why back in my day…’

“Hi,” she says, holding up her camera, “want to see what I shot?”
I have to admit I’m impressed. It’s a kind of rolling contact sheet. “Very nice,” I say. “You’ve got a good eye. Although a couple of these could be framed a smidge better.”

“Do you shoot?”

“Yeah, I used to. I was a hospital photographer before everything was digital and you had to wait two days to see what you got.”

“Oh, man, I sure could use some coaching.”

“You don’t need much. You’ve got some great shots there.”

“But what did you mean about ‘framing’?”

“Oh, you know, the old law of thirds.”

“Ah, from art history classes,” she says. “Composition. I never thought to apply it to photography. Show me which shots you meant.”

Soon we are sitting on a driftwood log and I’m drawing diagrams in the sand and taking pictures to illustrate concepts. There were times in my youth when exploring exposures with an attractive woman would’ve taken a different slant. But at my age, this is as good as it’s going to get. And I was even invited to be her friend online…huh!

Retired trainer, and writing instructor, Joe Novara lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Writings include novels, short stories, a memoir and various poems, plays, anthologies and articles. Read more at https://freefloatingstories.wordpress.com/

Filed Under: ESSAY

Spin Room Scam

June 22, 2025 By admin

spinning topAt the start of second grade in 1963, yo-yos and tops were popular. My father showed me how to make the yo-yo sleep by loosening the string, letting it spin above ground, and then snapping it back up. I could Walk the Dog but lacked the skill and technique for tricks like Around the World and Rock the Baby.

I loved the top. An older boy on the next block showed me how to wind the string around the bottom and whip it toward a flat surface like the linoleum floor in our kitchen. It would spin and move around. I became proficient and took my top to school. Kids would spin tops in a big locker room at ground level during recess, lunch, and before school started. The floor was hard and smooth, with lots of room.

One day, two older boys bragged that they could spin tops and run around the school building, returning while the top was still spinning. One approached me and said he thought I was a good spinner for my age and why don’t I try spinning my top and running around the school. He told me he bet it would still be spinning when I got back and that he would watch my top so the other kids wouldn’t take it.

That’s all it took. I was hooked, and all they had to do now was reel me in. I whipped that top as I’d never whipped it, tore out the doorway, and started running around the school. I wasn’t the fastest runner, but that day, I felt like the wings of Mercury were on my feet. When I returned to the locker room, the two boys had left, and my top was nowhere to be seen. After I got my wind and sat down to rest, it became clear my top was gone, probably for good. I was madder at myself for falling for the scam than I was at them. The next time I saw the two cons, I asked for my top back, but they acted like I didn’t know what I was talking about. My mother noticed the absence of my top spinning on our kitchen floor and asked me what happened to it. I just told her I’d lost it, and that was the truth.

I eventually mastered ‘Around the World,’ but ‘Rock the Baby’ came much later.

William P Adams lives in the Pacific Northwest, writing short fiction inspired by his childhood in the 1960s. His stories have appeared in Macrame Lit and Rockvale Review.

Filed Under: ESSAY

The Real Deal

June 8, 2025 By admin

babies in cribsI never stopped to think about it, but apparently the baby boomer generation has been labeled as more “authentic” in how we relate to our world.

Really? Yes, we are more real. Okay, I can think of worse things that we’ve been labeled but how did psychologists come to this conclusion?

First off, we grew up with fewer distractions. No social media, no digital anything really. Without all that chatter we had to focus on real interactions. That won’t be the last time you see the word real. We listened to each other and had to communicate face-to-face.

Next, we grew up without Google. That meant we had to look things up and learned a lot of things by trial and error. So add self-reliance to how we are more authentic.

We also grew up with a lot more face to face contacts than later generations. That was how we played and socialized and it helped us entertain ourselves.

We never had to experience the performance pressure that later generations felt. The absence of social media meant we could figure out who we were and who we wanted to be without excessive external pressures.

Another major factor in our world view were the major societal changes that affected our maturation. Womens’ liberation, the civil rights movement, and the war in Vietnam all had an impact on our world view. These events helped us clarify our values and world view.

In the absence of social media, we were able to develop a sense of self that didn’t rely on some curated views. We modeled ourselves on people we knew and admired in real life. It helped us remain true to ourselves and gave us a sense of security.

There wasn’t much oversharing as we grew up. We kept a lot more of our lives private than generations do now. We were a lot more measured when it came to deciding what we would share and what would remain private.

The last factor cited for boomer authenticity is trust. We met and encountered people for many years and really got to know them. Because we stayed in the same neighborhoods or with the same company/organization, the bonds formed could run very deep.

Ultimately, many boomers sense that they are more authentic because we are less filtered – less influenced by digital distractions. Boomers can’t claim to be the most authentic generation, but being nurtured in a world without social media and digital diversions certainly helped. As someone observed, the lesson we can take from the way we grew up is that being genuine means being present.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. But that’s not all. You can also purchase the Best of BoomSpeak on Amazon.

Filed Under: ESSAY

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