Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Binge Drinking and Baby Boomers
Fritz Lenneman
Oprah.com
September 1, 2009

Overview: “When news reports overflowed on the dangerous rise in binge drinking in young people, college campuses cracked down with zero-tolerance policies on both underage and legal drinking among students. The next step in the battle against binge drinking may be zero-tolerance rules in retirement homes.”
http://tinyurl.com/nskf32

Boomers and clutter -- what's the connection?
Dena Kouremetis
Examiner
August 31, 2009

Overview: Many baby boomers find it difficult to whittle down their belongings to those used regularly, resulting in an accumulation of more and more material goods,
http://tinyurl.com/n8bmvs

There Are Differences: Boomer Men Vs. Women
Brent Green
Media Post
August 31, 2009

Overview: Boomer men and women share many core values. According to NMI's Healthy Aging/Boomer Database, 81% of Boomer women and 78% of Boomer men strongly or somewhat agree with taking responsibility for their health.
http://tinyurl.com/myn7hl

Tips for Finding Low or No-Cost Entertainment
Philip Moeller
U.S. News World & Report
August 31, 2009

Overview: The Boomerater™ Report, a weekly collaboration with online baby boomer resource Boomerater, explores low or no-cost entertainment ideas that bring you into contact with others.
http://tinyurl.com/lktf7v

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

PBS series to look at Baby Boomers
Paul Briand
Examiner
September 2, 2009

Overview: "PBS will take a look -- a long look -- at Baby Boomers with its upcoming series Life (Part 2)."
http://tinyurl.com/mncd4h

Twitter Ranks High With Baby Boomers
Boomer Cafe
September 1, 2009

Overview: You might think that social networking is the territory of younger people however; the explosive growth of social networking site Twitter is due to younger Baby Boomers.
http://tinyurl.com/msjy3z

America Turns Inward in Tough Times
Phillip Moeller
U.S. News & World Report
September 1, 2009

Overview: The economic downturn has led to major cutbacks in volunteer activities. Traditionally, baby boomers have been engaging at the highest levels across the board, but they have been pulling back in these hard times.
http://tinyurl.com/lqhcvg

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Newsflash: Boomers are getting older
Kim Luisi
The Examiner
September 3, 2009

Overview: The baby-boomer generation is "aging out," but they don't refer to it as such. They're doing it their way and making everyone know about it.
http://tinyurl.com/kpm25h

Study: Older Americans Staying Put in Jobs Longer
Hope Yen
ABC News
September 3, 2009

Overview: “Older Americans will make up virtually all of the growth in the U.S. work force in the coming years as a nearly unprecedented number hold onto jobs and younger people decide to stay in school.”
http://tinyurl.com/nyqotk

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

A Transformation Most Boomers Only Wish For
Andrea R. Vaucher
The New York Times
September 4, 2009

Overview: Baby boomer Marla Ginsburg left her television job for the fashion world. “What might be surprising to other baby boomers struggling to change careers was how seamlessly she made the leap.”
http://tinyurl.com/nmbnue

Baby Boomers Are Staying in the Workforce Longer
Bonnie Erbe
U.S News & World Report
September 3, 2009

Overview: “New data show older folks are working longer, squeezing some young people out of the workforce.”
http://tinyurl.com/mxca69

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

You've Heard of the Staycation, But What About the 'Greycation?'
Heidi Atwal
Jaunted.com
September 8, 2009

Overview: "You've no doubt heard of the "staycation," but "greycation" might be a new term to familiarize yourself with, especially if you belong to the silver-haired faction of jetsetters. While the travel industry often takes great pains to appeal to younger demographics, what with the influx of advertisements for debauched Spring Break getaways and MTV branded guides, those 50 and over crave the same kind of exploration that their younger cohorts do."
http://tinyurl.com/lo4cpy

The Beatles Rock Band: Not just for Boomers
Glenn Gamboa
Newsday
September 6, 2009

Overview: "Will the release of The Beatles: Rock Band on Wednesday provide another landmark — an event that will introduce a huge percentage of baby boomers to the video games they have been buying their children and grandchildren for years?"
http://tinyurl.com/ldbpls

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Baby Boomers Spending Down Sharply
Reverse Mortgage
September 8, 2009

Overview: “Results from a new Gallup poll show that Baby boomers’ self-reported average daily spending of $64 is down sharply from an average of $98 in 2008.”
http://tinyurl.com/mxkpy3

Charity started by young Dallas professionals bridges generation gap
Bob Moos
Dallas Morning News
September 8, 2009

Overview: Dozens of “young Dallas professionals, fresh out of college and launching their careers, have formed a charity called the Boom Foundation to help baby boomers and seniors as they grow older.”
http://tinyurl.com/l844w2

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Will The Markets Tank As Boomers Retire?
Robert Powell
MarketWatch
September 10, 2009

Overview:”Many wise men have predicted the stock and bond markets will go into a free fall for decades once baby boomers start withdrawing money from their retirement accounts, but a new report this week by the Congressional Budget Office suggests that won't happen when boomers retire.”
http://tinyurl.com/m9blow

When Home Shrinks
Harvey Araton
The New York Times
September 9, 2009

Overview: “Baby boomers are already driving a new market for smaller, less expensive homes, according to Stephen Melman, the director of economic services for the National Association of Home Builders in Washington. In a recent member survey, 59 percent of builders nationwide said they were planning to or were already significantly downscaling from the McMansion era.”
http://tinyurl.com/nsg956

Treating Aging Baby Boomers Cost Hospitals $56 Billion
Health News Digest
September 9, 2009

Overview: “U.S. hospitals spent roughly $56 billion in 2007 – 16 percent of their overall patient care costs – treating baby boomers ages 55 to 64, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Health Care Research.”
http://tinyurl.com/m4anvt

Almost the first thing the real estate agent told me was “you’re not downsizing – you’re simplifying your life.”

That was her way of making me feel better about the tough decision I and so many other Boomers are making these days – to sell the homes where we are secure and comfortable, and the leave the gardens we cultivated and nurtured for years – in order to achieve financial flexibility, another code word for our times. (Think: 401K downsized to 101K.)

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Why Boomers Will Retire More Comfortably Than Their Parents
Matthew Bandyk
U.S. News & World Report
September 10, 2009

Overview: Ken Dychtwald, a psychologist and the author of 16 books on aging, says retirement for Baby Boomers will be different from traditional retirement – so different that we might need a new word to describe it.
http://tinyurl.com/nbbdq3

Baby Boomers ponder move from parenthood to grandparenthood
Paul Briand
The Examiner
September 10, 2009

Overview: “As Baby Boomers age and become grandparents themselves, Grandparents Day, which is Sunday, is taking on a whole new symbolic meaning of how we age, how we parent and, ultimately, how we grandparent.”
http://tinyurl.com/lpo4mn

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Seeing Store Shelves Through Senior Eyes
Ellen Byron
The Wall Street Journal
September 14, 2009

Overview: "As baby boomers turn 65 years old beginning in 2011, they are expected to spend an additional $50 billion over the next decade on consumer products in the U.S., estimates Sean Seitzinger, senior vice president of consulting and innovation for market-research firm Information Resources Inc."
http://tinyurl.com/lofamr

Baby Boomers Cost Hospitals Money
KEYC-TV.com
September 13, 2009

Overview: "In health news...treating aging baby boomers is costing hospitals more money than expected. A new federal report shows hospitals spent about 56 billion dollars in 2007 caring for baby boomers between the ages of 55 and 64."
http://tinyurl.com/nxntue

Baby Boomers Should "Trust Those Over Thirty" With Health Care Reform
Francesca Biller-Safran
The Huffington Post
September 11, 2009

Overview: "Baby Boomers represent the largest group of health care consumers in this country and are officially classified as the population born during the post-World War II era, born between 1945 and 1965."
http://tinyurl.com/pssh5g

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Health care issues: Shortage of doctors
Hope Yen
The Associated Press
September 15, 2009

Overview: “Due to increasing medical demands from aging baby boomers, the U.S. faces a dangerous shortage of primary-care doctors whether [the] sweeping [healthcare}overhaul is passed or not.”
http://tinyurl.com/la6tol

Retrenching: From Consuming To Saving
Ted Mininni
Engage Boomers
September 14, 2009

Overview: “As boomers who are closer to retirement cut back on their spending, perhaps for good, will younger demographic groups who are accustomed to being "ever more acquisitive in a world of instant gratification and easy credit" as the article aptly states - change their spending habits?”
http://tinyurl.com/n4za9f

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Baby Boomers highest among nation's uninsured
Paul Briand
The Examiner
September 16, 2009

Overview: “Baby Boomers lack health insurance at a bigger rate than any other age group in America. … Of the 78 million Baby Boomers, who are closing in on a host of age-related illnesses and infirmities, about 14.5 percent are uninsured. In 2007, the last time it was measured, it was 14 percent, so the situation is getting worse.”
http://tinyurl.com/lvn6jb

Recession Turns a Graying Office Grayer
Pew Research Center
September 3, 2009

Overview: “The American work force is graying -- and not just because the American population itself is graying. Older adults are staying in the labor force longer, and younger adults are staying out of it longer. Both trends took shape about two decades ago. Both have intensified during the current recession. And both are expected to continue after the economy recovers.”
http://tinyurl.com/n2narq

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

The Summer of the Celebrity Deaths?
Sarah Kershaw
The New York Times
September 16, 2009

Overview: “This summer could come to be known as the summer when baby boomers began to turn to the obituary pages first, to face not merely their own mortality or ponder their legacies, but to witness the passing of legends who defined them as a tribe, bequeathing through music, culture, news and politics a kind of generational badge that has begun to fray.”
http://tinyurl.com/ly6hjf

Nashville prepares for aging baby boomers who have no plans to slow down
Chris Echegaray
The Tennessean
September 17, 2009

Overview: “Nashville is planning for a not-too-distant future when one in four people is 65 or older and the city needs better sidewalks, public transportation and fitness opportunities to keep an aging population mobile.”
http://tinyurl.com/ld82r8

Retailers prep for aging Baby Boomers
Paul Briand
The Examiner
September 17, 2009

Overview: “Walgreens is one of a growing number of stores that is getting ready for the Baby Boom.”
http://tinyurl.com/nwq2ee

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Editorial: We Can't Cut Spending
Bruce Bartlett
Forbes
September 18, 2009

Overview: “The elderly are the reason why we have a national debt. Unfortunately, the ranks of the elderly are rising. In 1980, those over age 65 constituted 11.3% of the population. Today they represent 13%, a figure that will rise to 16% in 2020 with the aging of the baby boomers and increasing longevity, 19.3% in 2030 and 20% in 2040, according to Census Bureau projections.
http://tinyurl.com/lczbtk

Alliance Raises Healthy Round
Gavin O’Malley
Media Post News
September 17, 2009

Overview: Baby boomers and others access health social networking sites for information regarding chronic diseases. “Among consumers and advertisers, a market for health-related online platforms certainly exists. And it's not only baby boomers visiting health and wellness resources online, as over 50% of young people ages 13-24 are accessing the same information.”
http://tinyurl.com/l9mhhp

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Shifts in consumer spending and saving will usher in a new economic era
Innovations Report
September 21, 2009

Overview: “In August, 61 percent of consumers said the probability of having a comfortable retirement was lower, well above the 29 percent recorded at the start of the recession.”
http://tinyurl.com/n6phrt

Meltdown jolts consumers from financial fairyland
Dave Carpenter
The Associated Press
September 20, 2009

Overview: “Last year's financial meltdown knocked the swagger out of Americans' views toward investing. The baby boomers who forged the Reagan bull market; survived the 1987 crash; bought Amazon.com at $2 a share and sold at $100; brushed off the collapse of the dot-com bubble and kept plowing money into their 401(k)s are reassessing what they once believed.”
http://tinyurl.com/n58yvr

Boomers: Gen Xcessive
Lini S. Kadaba
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 20, 2009

Overview: “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission analyzed for The Inquirer its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System data. It estimated that in 2008, ERs treated 282,476 injuries among baby boomers (those ages 44 to 62) who suffered all sorts of sports- and exercise-related misfortune - a 47 percent increase from a decade earlier.”
http://tinyurl.com/n39lgn

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Market forces to consider
Sam Schneiderman
The Boston Globe
September 21, 2009

Overview: “Baby boomers are beginning to move on from their family homes. Their children, the echo boomers or generation Y that now make up about 1/3 of the U.S. population, are beginning to move into the housing market. There are more echo boomers than baby boomers. They’ll all need homes.”
http://tinyurl.com/l8bkap

Advertisers: Be Prepared For Big Boomer Brains
Chuck Nyren
Advertising to Baby Boomers
September 22, 2009

Overview: “Scientists have assumed that people's brains shrink as they age, but researchers now suspect that's not the case … Scientists in the past had failed to screen out people whose brains had shrunk because of brain disease, they said.
In other words, simply growing older may not make the brain become smaller.”
http://tinyurl.com/l3tk8e

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Meltdown retirement lessons: Investment ignorance is expensive, so is retirement
David Pitt
The Los Angeles Times
September 23, 2009

Overview: “Last year's financial meltdown was the second stock market disaster of the decade. Millions of baby boomers saw their savings wither, just when they were eyeing retirement.”
http://tinyurl.com/y8lmslr

The Way We Die Now
Timothy Egan
The New York Times
September 23, 2009

Overview: “About $67 billion — nearly a third of the money spent by Medicare — goes to patients in the last two years of life. The need to spend less money at the end of life ‘is the elephant in the room,’ Evan Thomas wrote in ‘The Case for Killing Granny,’ the cover story in last week’s Newsweek. ‘Everyone sees it but no one wants to talk about it.’”
http://tinyurl.com/ncwmdp

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Over 50 and jobless? Common — and scary
Steve Giegerich
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 25, 2009

Overview: “Laid off after years at the same job, experienced blue-collar and white-collar workers alike are wondering why their efforts to land new and meaningful employment have failed to net even a single face-to-face interview.”
http://tinyurl.com/ycwa252

Surviving Hard Times
Carrie Mason-Draffen
Newsday
September 24, 2009

Overview: “Baby Boomers, the workacholic generation, known for multi-taskers and corporate masters of the universe, now fear being marginalized in the job market.”
http://tinyurl.com/ydcpg3q

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Forsaking Florida
Linda Stern
Newsweek
September 25, 2009

Overview: “With its beautiful beaches, low taxes, and great golf courses, Florida used to pull retirees in by the millions. Now real-estate prices have collapsed and unemployment has skyrocketed. Some retirees are returning to points north, and a new generation is not intent on repopulating the Sunshine State.”
http://tinyurl.com/y8pumfr

Americans tame their wanderlust
Les Christie
CNN
September 25, 2009

Overview: “A good portion of the population has reached the age where the charm of a new place is more than offset by the fetters of life and responsibilities.”
http://tinyurl.com/ybs6aua

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Are Your Parents Old and Ill? A Chat With Dr. Tamra McClintock Greenberg
Dr. Hendrie Weisinger
The Huffington Post
September 25, 2009

Overview: “If you are like one of the millions that read The Huffington Post, it is safe to say your parents are aging and perhaps ill. How well do you understand what they are going through.”
http://tinyurl.com/ybst3uq

Short-sighted baby boomers
Peg Quann
Phillyburbs.com
September 24, 2009

Overview: “A survey released earlier this month by the National Association of Home Builders shows that baby boomers consider themselves high-tech, not high maintenance.”
http://tinyurl.com/ybzs97m

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Baby Boomers: Mom, apple pie and Wal-Mart
Paul Briand
The Examiner
September 29, 2009

Overview: “Nothing symbolizes America to Baby Boomers like Wal-Mart, according to a new survey from "60 Minutes" and Vanity Fair magazine.”
http://tinyurl.com/y8ao579

Baby boomers delay retirements, thanks to recession
Diane Stafford
McClatchy Newspapers
September 29, 2009

Overview: “More than two-thirds of human resource professionals surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management reported that the number of employees planning to delay retirement has increased.”
http://tinyurl.com/yb4htke

What Boomers--and Others Want in a Home
Elizabeth Razzi
The Washington Post
September 29, 2009

Overview: “A story about designing homes for "aging" (ahem!) baby boomers in Nation's Building News brought to mind a thought that hits me every time I buy contact lens solution, of all things. I buy the stuff made especially for "sensitive eyes" and always wonder: Who would choose anything else? It's not like there's a discount for buying a "diced-onions-don't-phase-me" version.”
http://tinyurl.com/ybuaeuw

Top News From Today's "Boomiverse"

Baby Boomers sometimes at odds in business
Paul Briand
The Examiner
September 30, 2009

Overview: “When it comes to communication in the workplace, Baby Boomers prefer face-to-face. When it comes to a workplace reward for a job well done, Baby Boomers prefer time off and training opportunities.”
http://tinyurl.com/y87fxs5

Yet another strain on social security
Martin Hutchinson
CNN Money/Fortune
September 29, 2009

Overview: “Early retirement by baby-boomers would reduce the long-term burden on the social security trust fund. But the short term cash outflows would worsen budget shortfalls and make funding them more difficult.”
http://tinyurl.com/yb34gzb

Enough With 'Why'; Let's Focus on 'How'
Matt Thornhill
Engage Boomers
September 28, 2009

Overview: “It seems that pain is a great motivator. The economic pain created by the recession has triggered more marketers across more categories into thinking about how to engage the Boomer consumer today. They have moved beyond the "why" and want help on the "how." Good for us, and good for them.”
http://tinyurl.com/y8q7nzd