As an AARP member, I read an article in theJAN-FEB 2016 edition of Real Possibilities Magazine, about the first baby boomers are now turning 70! Bill Newcott talks in length in his article titled,
"The Boomers Turn 70: How this generation has influenced us all and how it will change the world again"
Newcott chronicles Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, who "was born seconds past midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, in Philadelphia, she was at the head of a very long parade. About 3.4 million babies arrived in that first year of what became known as the baby boom generation.
This year Casey-Kirschling and others in the boomer vanguard turn 70. Their lifes course took the nation on a great adventure, rewriting attitudes on race, gender and sex, dictating musical taste, and changing just about everything in the world they inherited. To quote the Grateful Dead, one of their cultural icons, What a long, strange trip its been.
So, what does it mean to turn 70 in 2016? Here are some of the articles highlights
- For some of the 2.5 million living boomers who will make that milestone this year, it means aging in a world where the change they embracedand even fought forin their youth has seemed to accelerate, sometimes in uncomfortable ways.
- For instance, people born in 1946 grew up in a country where Caucasians were an estimated 90 percent majority, and most families consisted of man (who went to work), woman (who stayed home) and children (3.5). Today, with the accelerated immigration of the last few years coupled with the change in social mores, it is a different world. Whites are on their way to becoming a minority in America by 2044.
- Men turning 70 this year grew up as part of a generation in which 40 percent of their brethren served in the military, and many of them were drafted to fight in Vietnam.
- Women born in 1946 saw perhaps even greater changes in their roles in society. Since their birth, the percentage of American women in the workforce has soaredfrom 31 percent in 1946 to 57 percent today. The percentage of 70-plus women who are still working is expected to rise from 30 percent to 39 percent by 2024.
- For gay people born in 1946, life has been a journey toward acceptance inward and outward.
- Compared with people reaching the same age in 1965, the new 70-year-olds can expect 15 more years of life.
- On the other hand, living longer will mean that more people turning 70 will deal with Alzheimers.
- The median family income of Americans, adjusted for inflation, rose from $27,000 in 1946 to $62,000 today. But so has debt.
- More than 4 out of 10 of those reaching 70 this year risk running out of money in retirement, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Who are this year's 70 year olds:
Still on The Job!
So the boomers will change the country once more. They will live longer and work longer than their predecessors, and colleagues will have to get used to energetic gray-haired coworkers. Surveys tell us those turning 70 this year, and over the next several years, are much more inclined to stay on the job than previous generations, either out of necessity or desire.
By 2022 nearly a quarter of people 70 to 74 will be workingdouble the figure in 1992. As the first boomer to reach 70, Kathleen Casey-Kirsch-ling says,
You only have the moment. You cant live in the past, and you dont know what the future is going to bring.