The Savvy Boomer

This is how boomers connected in the 60s and 70s

OK, for those of you locked in the sights of the Twitter generation, you probably haven't given much consideration as to how your parents or others who were either teenagers or in their early 20's connected 30 or 40 years ago because what could they possibly have to communicate that was of any interest?

For starters, if they didn't connect, most of you in the"need to know it before it happens" generation wouldn't be here.  It may come as a shock to you that we somehow managed to communicate without smart phones, texting, emails, twitter, you tube, google etc. etc.  Yeah, it was pretty slow and lame compared to the insta-communications of today, but you know what?  That's what made you cool-knowing what was going on because you were "connected."  When we heard about something interesting, we didn't feel a need to yell it out to the world.  Indeed, we usually felt a need to only share it with a few others.  And no one ever gave a flying crap what anyone else other than their close friends and maybe family were doing at any given moment in time.  And even then, no one much cared.  In the 60's, if you hung out at the A&W, you could pretty much stay in the loop. 

How did we connect?  Well-it all depended more on who you knew, and not so much on what you knew.  For example, a lot of people didn't know about the greatest get-together of the 60's (maybe ever) called "Woodstock" until days or weeks after it happened. You may find that hard to believe since today, almost everyone on the planet knows everything about every potential "happening" thing within seconds of it being announced.

I found out about Woodstock because I happened to be in Montreal at the time and someone at a party we were at, had been at the local Playboy club (remember them?-now if you were able to get into a PB club, you were really connected)  and had overheard a musician talking about Jimi Hendrix playing in some place called Woodstock NY, the following week.  Hendrix was not mainstream back then but one of my friends who was plugged into music told us that he was great.  Good enough for us-US roadtrip- Hell yeah!!  We were off. 

The sad story is we never made it because the VW van (how classic was that?) we were driving just had no cajones left.  So after it broke down, we spent the weekend trying to drink all the COLT 45 we could find in Albany NY where it turns out one of the guys in the van met a lovely lady and last contact I had, still lives there  after he married her.   Although he was a Canadian, he still had to register but luckily, his draft lottery number was never called.

Everyone who was "connected" just seemed to know when there would be a great party, a bitchin street race, a cool protest, a much needed brawl (no weapons involved back then), a sporting event not to be missed, an awesome concert etc etc.

The point is, we didn't need or want something like a social media website to connect us to these kinds of events back then because we had our own network and methods for finding out.  If you didn't know what was going on, that's because you weren't connected either because you didn't want to be or didn't deserve to be.  Today everyone "thinks" they are connected, but those of us who lived in the 60s and 70s had to use something more than a gadget to connect and if you don't understand what I mean, I feel sorry for you. 

Reality check time.  Do you really care what anyone else is doing right now-other than your family and Obama? (and CNN pretty much has the latter covered 24x7.) 

NOTE:  Notwithstanding the above, I have several gadgets which I use to "connect" now, and I use Twitter, FB, Linked-In and of course blog.  However, I still look back on the ability to make connections the "old school way" as understanding how connections are really made.

Fashion Reading Glasses for Savvy Boomers

We've discussed reading glasses a few times on this site over the past couple of years so when I was approached by Fashion Reading Glasses to review their products, I thought it would be more of the same.  However, I was pleasantly surprised not only by their fun and trendy styling, but also their incredibly low pricing.

Just because our older eyes require some assistance to read all the small print, doesn't mean that we have to wear nondescript glasses.  Take a look at the  pictures below (the polka dots are my personal favorites) and you'll see why I think these glasses are great value-most of them around $15.  I gave a couple of pairs to boomer friends who had much the same reaction-both had been using glasses they paid close to $50 for and had zero styling so of course, they were thrilled with these.

Here's the best part.  Order 2 pairs from the Fashion Reading Glasses website and if you mention this post in the comments section of the order, you'll get a 3rd pair free.  In other words, about $30 for 3 pairs of fashionable reading glasses or the same price that you'll pay for 1 old fashioned pair from your drugstore.  A nice touch is they have matching cases.

Also, for our Canadian readers, they are Canuck-friendly with not only Canadian pricing but also no worries about clearing Canadian customs as they also ship from Canada.

Boomers embracing technology faster than ever

For the past two years, Accenture has been conducting in-depth research about the usage patterns of various types of consumer technology products and services among U.S. consumers. 

The research was completed in the winter of 2008/2009 and provides direct comparisons with last winter’s 2007/2008 research data. The goal was to determine if there had been any changes in usage between Baby Boomers + (age 45 and older) and Generation Y (ages 18 to 24).  The research uncovered several interesting trends.

You can view and download the whole report in a pdf file.

Brats whining about boomers

Look at some of the articles below written by people who are probably children of boomers who probably paid for their kid's education so that they could learn how to be witty enough to bitch about the boomer generation and therefore their parents.  Any boomer I know never disrespected the previous generation  but I guess the whiners need a target to blame for their perceived woes.  Fortunately, they are in the minority as most gen x and gen y seem to understand that whining never solved anything.

You would think that most of them would have learned to do at least a little research and understand that boomers are classified as people born between 1946 and 1964, and not call President Obama a Gen-Xer and not call his mother, who was born in 1942, a boomer.  Yeah, the rest of their research and facts pretty much follow in that same vein.

Swan Fungus (This guy has some serious issues calling a boomer "a GD MotherF'g stupid bitch ending the post with "Ugh! Baby Boomers.  Die, please?"  I'll bet his boomer mother is real proud but somehow I don't think he cares.)

The Worst Generation Ever (no posts for 6 months-maybe his parents sent him to his room for a time out)

Samuel J Scott(frustrated that boomers won't retire so he can't get a decent job to pay off his student loans)

Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist (an HR firm that obviously doesn't place anyone over 40)

Reading glasses-a boomer's best friend

There are several products that lend themselves to buying on the internet and I think reading glasses is one of them.  With 2 pair of boomer eyes in the house, reading glasses are as much of a necessity here as a phone and now that they can be purchased inexpensively, having a few pairs just makes sense.  Like a portable phone, reading glasses tend to end up being located in the last place you used them, but unlike a telephone that will ring to let you know where it is, reading glasses tend to get misplaced regularly.  (Or am I just getting more forgetful?)  I refuse to wear them on a chain around my neck so I've found that having a few pair lying around in convenient spots is the way to go.

We now have no less than 8 pair in the house, after receiving an order of 2 more regular pair from Reading Glasses Shopper.  We also ordered 2 pair of reading sunglasses so that we don't have to wear a pair of sunglasses over top of reading glasses.  They arrived within a few days even though they had to pass through Canadian customs so shipping to their U.S. customers (free for orders over $30) will be even faster.

The best part is that the last 4 pair are not only more stylish (see pictures) than the 4 we previously purchased, but their cost is less than 1/2 of the first 4 pair.  They seem to be better constructed and clearer as well.  If they break, get lost or if when we need stronger power, we'll just order more.  4 pair for well under $100 is a great price.  Take a look at their website which is easy to navigate and even shows you the glasses in the color you choose when you click on the various colors available for each pair of glasses. 

Accept it.  Boomer reading glasses are just a fact of life so you may as well look good wearing them.

New Rules of Retirement

 

"New Rules of Retirement" is a timely book written by 2 Canadian investment professionals, Warren MacKenzie and Ken Hawkins.  I was immediately intrigued when I first saw the cover by the following statement:

"What your financial advisor isn't telling you."

It reminded me that just a few days earlier my wife told me she had requested her financial advisor to sell some stock in her Retirement plan that had actually increased over the last few months.  When she said she wanted it placed in a term deposit the advisor was reluctant and said "Well only if you'll promise me that you'll re-invest it in the market shortly."  Are you kidding me?  She actually said that?  Who's the customer here?  But it makes sense when you realize that these people make their commissions off the churn.  So in this case, it was what the financial advisor was telling us that was disturbing.   I truly believe the byline above is something we all need to know and the authors do a good job of detailing their concerns and giving advice on what to look for to protect your nest egg.

The book deals with a lot of financial issues such as how to ask the right questions of your financial advisor and more importantly, how to find a financial advisor you can trust.  It also deals with other issues pertinent to retirement such as planning for declining health, housing, traveling, working beyond retirement etc.

While the book is more suited for Canadians because all the tax considerations and financial investment vehicles are Canadian oriented, anyone who is looking at the entire retirement picture and especially dealing with a financial advisor will find value in the book.

You can read more about it and buy it on their web site or you can predict the winning score of the SuperBowl game this weekend in the comments of this post and I'll send a free copy to the person who comes closest.  By the way, for you non-U.S football fans, the teams playing are Pittsburgh and Arizona.  My prediction is Arizona 24 -Pittsburgh 23.  Maybe we'll use the proceeds from the stock to bet that.  I doubt Messrs. MacKenzie or Hawkins would agree with that type of investment, not to mention the real owner of the proceeds.

If you were born from 1946-1953, Marian Salzman hates you

Marian Salzman is the Chief Marketing Officer for a PR company.  She decided to crap on early boomers in an article on CNN.

Ms. Salzman used words to describe anyone born in this 8 year window as preening, strutting, chest-thumping, greedy, selfish, confrontational people who no one wants to be associated with anymore because we are basically responsible for all the ills in the world today.  She points out that the evil Bush is part of our cohort, whereas the enlightened Gates, Obama and Caroline Kennedy are not-even though they are boomers, she defines them as "cuspers." 

Hmmm.  Pretty strong sentiments from someone whom you would think would be concerned about her image with her clients who either market to this age group or perhaps are even part of it themselves.

Actually when I first saw her picture, I thought it was Ann Coulter.  Perhaps, that "look" goes with the territory of women who like to speak their mind.  I know it's not fair to stereotype but if Marian can do it, so can I.

   

New site on ageing

Gretchen Heuring, CEO of ElderThink describes the site as being about the parents of Boomers.  You love us, worry about us, are annoyed by us, and you could be just like us.