You have to remember that 55 and up communities in general aren't for the bottom half of the population. They are aim at those upper middle class people and those people have done very well over the past 20 years. Have you seen the threads of the income of young people at FANGs? How many millenials have we seen posting making 400k/year? Is homeownership harder these days? Yep. But not by much. At age 30 the ownership was 31% for millenials vs 32.5% for Gen X versus 35% for boomers. We aren't talking huge differences. Heck most of that is probably driven more by just getting married/cohabiting later in life. And things like going to college have both upped the amount of debt they have at young ages AND upped their real income later in life. It can make direct comparisons very nuanced.I'm certainly not puzzled by it, I understand where it is coming from. Its not about "not having an idea who you will be in your 60s/70s". Its more that Gen Y/Z views the boom generation as having had an exceptionally good opportunity to build wealth that Gen Y/Z has not gotten and likely never will. Much of Gen Y/Z cannot fathom owning a house or having a comfortable retirement, so the sentiment from TheDDC makes sense.I'm a bit puzzled by this generational comment too. Few, if any folks in their 20s thru 40s now would ever envision a 55+ community as a desirable move. So I get that. But you have no idea who you will be when you reach your 60s/70s. You won't be the same person mentally, emotionally or physically at 65 that you are at 25 or 30. I don't mean you'll be worse off necessarily: your opinions may just evolve along with a few more decades of life.Perhaps not in the 60's and 70's when they were rebelling against everything that moved, but later on yes.You think boomers in their younger years EVER thought they'd be caught dead living in a place called "sun city"? lol.
For what my two cents are worth, I can see both sides of the 55+ community coin. On the one hand, its some barrier against the broader issues of the world that people don't want to deal with in their old age. On the other hand I tend to think of them as places where people move to spend all their time on leisure with no real purpose left in life which accelerates their decline.
That said, I don't think I'd ever move to one.
Yes that is exactly the point. The boomers didn't expect to be in these retirement communties either when they were 35. But now at 70, they are. Odds are that the millennials who don't think they will end up there, will also end up there. They just need to age a bit to realize it.
The exact shape might change as retirement communities in the desert might not be a great idea with another 30 years of global warming, but you can bet they will be moving some place with the similar intent. And complaining about how liberal the kids are these days with their crazy ideas...What is slightly different between generations is that it appears that the gap between the top 25% of millennial's and the bottom 25% is much larger than previous generations. This isn't overly shocking. We have been reading about the failure of that segment to participate in the growth for a long time and how manufacturing jobs have gone from being solidly middle class to barely enough to get by. Depending on your social circle, your impressions will vary on how they are doing.
As far as what you think, the question is does it remotely match reality? That is hard to say. I can't say I noticed a difference in the purpose in life between my parents when they retired and lived in the same house I grew up in for 5 years and when they moved to a 55 and up community. The volunteered at the same charities. They travel the same amount or more. My Dad added a bowling, botchie, horseshoe, and shuffle board leagues to the golf one. If any of that provides a real purpose I will leave it up to you. But I doubt anything he would have done in any other living arrangement would have been much different.
Statistics: Posted by randomguy — Thu Apr 18, 2024 1:11 am — Replies 153 — Views 24772