Half of Gen X Doesn't Expect to Retire

reply to post by Icarus Rising


I never really had hard feeling towards you. I think you are aware of that. I do have hard feelings towards the attitude held by many that "you should have done better" which is how many of the Boomers come across. Oh the X'ers have their own share of people with that sentiment as well. because I do have the ability to learn from others experience I have avoided such hardships as placing my hands on the stove and be burned to know it is hot.

I break down the generations like this The Greatest came through the Great Depression and know the value and potential value of everything, thus the horde the scraps of paper and cans of lima beans just in case. The passed this on to the Boomers who went out to accumliate as much wealth as possible to shelter against the storm and vowed never to put their children through the hardships they had. Gen X had toys overflowing under the Christmas tree and were encouraged to explore themselves and live in the moment. Gen Y wants fame, power and wealth (pretty much in that order) yet have no real ability to go about it. Still they try by doing whatever they can. YouTube videos, MySpace pages, texting. They have mastery of tools none of use really ever had, yet produce nothing truely tangible and lasting.

On a personal level, I know how fleeting oportunities are and how quickly wealth can vaporise. Maternal grandparents had a very large farm that depended on my grandfather to be there to keep it going. Fighting with the draft board during WWII, Uncle Sam said no dice so they sold it. Right after it sold (divided into 5 lots) the draft board relented. But the farm was gone. He had went through a hard childhood, he genral store that his mother ran (father was a drunk that ran off with another woman) sits at the bottom of a lake when the TVA said "here is a few bucks, move to higher ground."

As for myself, I live in the moment and do things based on how a situation feels. I remain in SW Ohio because I feel I am supposed to be here, for some reason. Job market is brutal here and I have had stretches of months of unemployment and collected no benefits. I live a modest life in a small apartment with 2 cats and drive a 91 Ranger. Alone but not lonely I wait, because my feelings serve me well. After high school, I could have went off to NY or LA to make a go of acting. I had the talent and a couple of connections back then, but I felt as though I needed to move to Florida with the family because I was needed there. I was. Dad lost his job in early 90's cutbacks and I found myself making 2 car payments, insurance and groceries for us all. Went from some $25K in savings to nothing in a year. And passed up a few great women that wanted to be my wife during that time and the three years prior to that. One I regret more than others because when I first met her in 1987 in Ohio it was love at first sight because I instantly knew what our future would be...she on the otherhand, hated me with a purple passion. Because I always had beautiful girls asking me out and I would play along from time to time or turn them down depending on my mood or who I was dating at the time. The power of fame of being a small time local celebrity. Heck one of those little girls I turned down grew up to be a celebrity in her own right...Carmen Electra. But back then, she was just Tara Patrick, and a girl a year or two younger that wanted an autograph like the rest of her friends as well as to go out sometime.

Some would say I am bitter or at least should be. I think of myself as experienced. I have had my highs and currently live in the lows. I am well aware that things can change very quickly and be better or worse than they are now. I have another 30 years before retirement as it is 67 for me and not 65. My paternal grandfather lived to be 68 and 1 day. My maternal great-grandfather lived to be 98. And another relative on my mother's father's side lived to be an estimated 120-130 (the family bible was lost in a fire when a small child so no one knows when he was born) by counting census records before he disappeared. Some think he went up into the mountians and died others think he moved out of the area but the old coot outlived the 8 different wives he had, all his children, most of his grandchildren and quite a few of his great-grandchildren and 5 great-great-grandchildren that died before age 3. And I have nearly all the resive genes from that side of the family so that is what I fear about retirement planning...extreme longevity.

In the end, I have lived a life already the way I see it. If I said everything I have seen and done, everyone would call BS at some point. Just think of Forrest Gump with an IQ of 185 instead to get an idea. But I look forward to what the future could hold. For the possibilites the US could break down into a true Civil War in the very near future. I suppose I wouldn't mind if fate would force me to be the next Francis Marion, although I don't have a name that sounds nearly as swishy. Or I can be content just living one day into the next as I am doing now. But either way, I will speak on the behalf of others when I feel they are done a wrong.