There’s been a lot of talk lately about GenXers saving more income than Baby Boomers for retirement, as well as the lack of participation in 401k plans or other means of saving. But what people aren’t talking about is the ideological differences that may be driving these differences.
Tom Brokaw wrote a book, The Greatest Generation. The nomenclature derives from a sociocultural definition - meaning, a consciousness among people in a cohort - in addition to a geographical place and era. Even back in the 1920s, people were seeing the problems with divisions of generations - just ask Karl Mannheim.
The defining of a non-related group of people by sheer cultural or historical circumstances eradicates individualism and creativity. A member of any given generation has to be nearly as tough as nails to stand out from a crowd. Subculture is overlooked and tensions are falsely created or, more typically, emphasized because “they” don’t understand “us”. [Remind anyone of “movements” lately because people aren’t seen for who they are? Yet, I digress…]
When considering “Baby Boomers”, they emerged post-war as they rejected traditional values or wanted near wholesale redefining of rhetoric. Though there is “generational ownership” debate with the early versus later boomers, all are still focused on the post-war American spirit, and the ironic surge of power in the concept that “we defeated everyone”. So should not come as any surprise that this cohort didn’t save like their parents, didn’t have companies with lifetime employment like their parents, didn’t think anyone could bring them down (because their parents won, so would they).
Conversely, the Me Generation/ GenX, were the children of the ‘revolutionaries’ and denounced the America that the Greatest Generation helped create (and from which they were prospering). They have the highest education levels, which should be no surprise being a personal-achievement-oriented group. This particular cohort bleeds into the GenY group, who have been described by some as narcissistic (i.e. what’s best for me). It is no surprise, then, that they look out for their retirement welfare first, sometimes at the detriment of other important milestones in life.
But this all gets back to the generalizations of cohorts, and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. While we may not like the sense of entitlement that Millennials have (because too often, perhaps, we are cleaning up the mess they leave) or the personal Me-focus of GenX (because teamwork produces better results in a relay race), as with all other things, we can benchmark the good and adopt portions. Looking out for yourself, for your financial future rather than the good of the whole community to your own detriment is important. Perhaps philanthropic endeavors gear back a bit until you have more saved for yourself in the long days ahead. Or consider what this article says about how you choose to invest.
After all, when we plan for disasters, just as the flight attendants say - put on your own oxygen mask before attempting to help others.
