Investing - Theory, News & General • What if you were a boglehead as a older baby boomer

I am always amazed at how much time is spent on taking a complex data set and a somewhat arbitrary parameter (e.g., year you were born or the generation you belong to) to define a subset and then create a narrative on why that subset has some characteristic (e.g., no savings). This seems like a narrative looking for data, or as the saying goes “Liars, damn liars, and statisticians”.

[After watching the video, it does seem he is looking for a reason for his parent’s failures.]

So, the first question might be: how much different is the “No saving” across the other generations or birth year? And is it statistically significant?

I would venture many on this forum would answer the question of ‘why so many people have “No savings”’ something like: Because they could not or did not live below their means or at least did not pay themselves first (i.e. did not save for retirement).

[You will notice in his narrative a couple of times the “high expenses” came up on several issues.]

I will acknowledge that the Baby Boomer parameter does have some significant relationship with changes in economic instruments used for retirement. Such as the transition from defined benefit retirement plan (pensions) to defined contribution plan (401K) and expensive investment option to index mutual funds. Also, the phasing out of lifetime medical insurance for vested retirees. Along with the start of major issues and changes to social security and Medicare.

[Which he mostly covered in the video]

Although I would say the general baby boomer of 1946-1964 is too wide to make any generalizations especially for the factors above. But I will say the early boomers (1946-1954 the non-Jones) did get some numerous raw deals.

And yes, two of those raw deals were the 2000 and 2008 crashes but with both the real question is how you responded, and did you have an asset allocation that you were comfortable with (i.e., did you understand the risk).

Statistics: Posted by Leesbro63 — Sat Sep 27, 2025 3:38 pm — Replies 69 — Views 3461