Boomer Facts

Check out some interesting facts about this unique population.

By 2050, the population of the United States over the age of 85 will grow at a rate of eight times the population of the entire country!

Baby Boomers have different attitudes toward money than their parents, who were shaped by the Depression and World War II, and their children, who have grown up with access to easy credit and the tendency to spend money they may not have.

These same Boomers also are likely to spend an increasing amount of their money on alcoholic beverages (especially beer and wine), home improvements and furniture, and consumer electronics ranging from cell phones to televisions.

While they are willing to spend money on themselves in retirement, Baby Boomers remain anxious over their economic well-being and are concerned with the solvency of Social Security and balancing their retirement needs with the cost of paying tuition for their children. They may not even want to retire, preferring to find a second or even a third career that will offer some kind of fulfillment and their desire to maintain a high level of intellectual and physical activity as they age.

Encouraged by doctors to continue to exercise three to five times a week for their health, many Boomers are running, swimming, and biking, testing the limits of their middle-aged body's abilities while crowding the nation's operating rooms and orthopedists' offices. Knee and hip replacements, surgery for cartilage and ligament damage, and treatment for tendonitis, arthritis, bursitis and stress fractures are evidence of this. In medical circles, this is known as "Boomeritis."