From The Past
March through December of 2012 I had the opportunity to write a blog for a local newspaper. The title of the blog was Lowering the Boomer. It was a fun experience that offered me the opportunity to be creative, writing about personal experiences as a Baby Boomer.
My style of writing has changed through the years but I thought it was fun to go back and read these. So I thought (reluctantly) it might be fun to post them on the website I now own.
Some of you may be able to relate to these writings and some may think it is so off-the-wall that it can’t be real. All real folks!! But I’m taking this chance to post them anyways. You may even get a kick out of them.
Boomerang Generation (year 2012)
Some years ago we began to hear of the Boomerang Generation. Definition: young adults moving back to their place of origin: their parent’s home. At that time we began to hear of baby boomers adult children returning home at age 26-30. For one reason or another, often due to loss of job or divorce…bottom line financial impediment.
2011 we now see, Reverse Boomerang…baby boomers moving in with their adult children. Retired or close-to-retirement age parents lost their funds to Bernie’s illegal moves or they were laid off from work and could not find employment fast enough to save the mortgage. Homes lost, ability to pay rent lost, 401(K) lost, retirement investments lost.
We baby boomers worked from age 15 to early 60s, raised our kids to adulthood, enjoyed the blessings of many grandchildren and looked forward to the adventures of retirement.
Plans to travel, create that new garden, sell the large family home, buy a smaller retirement home, play golf and/or tennis any day of the week or write that novel. And, truly enjoy the fact of not having to commute to a job where someone else tells you to work harder to make more money for them.
In 2005 I sold a 4-bedroom 2-bath, 1714 sq. ft. house in Florida. I downsized to a lease of a great 2-bedroom cottage close to Cape Cod Canal. I loved that cottage and felt I could remain there for quite some time. It was an easy drive to family and the ocean, two essentials in my life.
Fall of 2007 my lease was due to renew. In 2006 I had been through an unexpected divorce and the financial future looked uncertain, but I had a job and was able to meet my financial obligations each month.
My daughter’s family and I decided I would move into their home instead of renewing my lease. My son-in-law, my son and other relatives remodeled a section of the home to an in-law suite.
Once again residential downsizing: this time to a lovely one bedroom apartment with a living room, bathroom, kitchen, private entrance and deck.
No need for any larger of a home. It was actually quite liberating to live a more minimalist life. I was still naïve enough to think about a comfy retirement in 7 years. That was precisely why I had made this decision to downsize again: to make life a bit more comfortable and secure (and to assure my family I would remain in Massachusetts). I had a job and enjoyed a low monthly payment of utility expenses.
Few of us (average citizens) anticipated a recession and unemployment. In 2008 most of us began to see the beginning of the end. Young couples with young children and retired baby boomers began losing their homes and life’s savings.
Jump to January of 2010, job loss begins for me as does the need to grab that early social security retirement fund.
Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? I can hear some saying, She is actually walking that mile in my shoes.
