Baby Boomers, love them or hate them one thing is for certain. There are a lot of them and a lot of them are retired or retiring. Not all of them have a rosy looking retirement ahead of them. One of the reasons for The Boomers retirement downfall is loyalty. Loyalty  to their careers and company that they worked for or still work for. I should know. I am on the tail end of the Boomer generation date range of 1946 to 1964. That is a big 18 year range.

I always laugh when I think about being grouped with people born in the 1940s and me being born in 1958. I don’t feel like I have much in common or shared anywhere near the same experiences. But that is how the boomer generation is defined. Whenever people think of boomers they seem to think of the 1960s. Drugs, free love, flower power, peace symbols, hippies, beatniks, and the Vietnam War.

There is the old saying. “If you remember the 60s you weren’t there.” I remember the 60s but this Leisure Freak Boomer was in elementary school.

Why I believe the Boomers retirement downfall is loyalty.

Don’t get me wrong. Company loyalty greatly served the first group or what are now the oldest of the boomers very well for a large part if not their whole career. Boomers are the last generation to have company provided pensions which follows in the same retirement financing that their parents had. However many of the younger boomers were phased out of pensions as companies shifted away from them. Companies began drawing a line in the sand. Where they could legally drop people from their pension plans. But even when that happened, boomers stayed loyal to their company. Why?

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The corporate and business culture boomers came into was that you would be rewarded if worked hard. Rewarded if  you put in long hours and made a commitment to the company and your career. You had to pay your dues, gain experience, and honor the corporate hierarchy. Things were done a certain way and you got in line. You worked your way up the ladder. No matter how long it took. We trusted our companies and leadership and that is where boomers made a big mistake and ultimately their retirement downfall.

Things changed in Corporate America

They didn’t come out and tell boomers the game was changing. You see, they needed the boomer’s loyalty and commitment to keep the ball moving forward. There was no reason to announce to them that the focus was shifting from skilled employees being seen as an asset to now seeing them as a cost. Wall Street was calling the shots now. I don’t think Wall Street even knows what loyalty is. Those promises of your long-term loyal employment being rewarded with a pension and health care are now off the table because they either can’t or have decided they won’t honor those promises.

Boomers have 401Ks but those didn’t become common place in the workforce until the mid to late 1980s. Some boomers were already approaching the half way mark of their career when they made their first 401K contribution. But why would these companies say anything to people where a large number of them might say “screw this”.  “If you aren’t holding up your end of the agreement, why should I”. Then leave them in a hole by taking their skills and expertise somewhere else. Or worse, retire in place collecting a pay check and not staying engaged. The answer, companies didn’t announce anything.

Companies started to slowly cut folks loose from their pension obligations. Boomers stayed loyal because it was the only working culture they knew and companies were turning up the heat a little at a time. Like the Frog and Hot Water story. If you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water he will immediately jump out. Put him in the pot and slowly boil the water and he won’t. That is what Corporate America and other smaller companies did to boomers and changed the deal that was made.

Don’t let the door hit you on your ass on the way out.

Many did leave. Especially the older employees and boomers who had hit their age + years of service pension eligibility numbers. They took their skills and retirements with them. I heard of many starting a second career using their pension as a jumping off point. Hearing about them is what started me planning my “retire early and often” lifestyle that I now live. However I was trapped with others like myself who barely survived the pension cutoffs.

We of the tail-end of the boomers stayed because we were handcuffed needing another 10 years, 12 years, or more to get the now reduced prize. We were 20 years into the deal already.

I saw what was happening. The water was almost boiling but not surprisingly my loyalty was still required. They hit me over the head with that until the day I reached pension eligibility. I am sure many young boomers went through a similar experience.

Boomer trust and loyalty hurt their retirements.

I started my career in 1978. At that time my company and many others offered pensions and you accepted that you would be paid a lower salary in many cases. It takes decades to get to their promised benefit. The 401K wasn’t heard of by the common employee until well into the mid to late 1980s. My first 10 years working had only a minimal amount go into my 401K due to a low salary, and a lack of information. When I did invest you had two choices. A Cash balance investment paying interest or your company stock. All 401K company match was in your company stock too.

Buying company stock was another expected form of loyalty and boomers blindly fell for it. This wasn’t just by my company but common practice. It wasn’t until sometime in the 1990s when diversified investment options appeared in 401Ks and it wasn’t much. However many boomers remained invested in their companies right up until the collapse of Worldcom, Enron, etc. in the mid-2000s. All of which brought about a concerted effort by the government to change that. A lot of retirement savings exploded. Boomers lost big time.

Boomer 401Ks took a hit and then boomers were being laid off during the last recession. Putting the icing on their retirement cake. Loyal to the end and now many who need to find another job have a huge problem finding one. We relied too much on our companies for our income, savings, and retirement. Fortunate are the boomers who made it to retirement regardless of their flawed loyalty gene. They had to do a lot of things right to make it happen.

But what about unbridled boomer consumerism?

So some will say I’m full of crap and the boomer retirement downfall is because they bought too much useless crap and didn’t save enough. I admit there is some of that. But please, that isn’t a Generational Phenom. Every age and generation has a part of their population who are financially clueless. God bless the American over-consumerist for keeping the economy going. If anything the boomers can be blamed for following the old tried and true model of the American dream.

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The new work culture.

Company loyalty is long gone or at least how it was. Now employees are loyal for only as long as they work there and want to work there. Companies lay off people one day and hire a contractor to do their job or outsource it the next day. It’s all down to this. I am here, you pay me the agreed upon amount to do my job and if I want to leave I will move on. If you want me to leave then I will move on and apply my skills somewhere else. I am not tied to any one company nor depend on them for my retirement.

Some will say boomers were and are slow to accept this new culture. I hope not. The younger boomers who survived all the mayhem of the recession and most likely saw their pensions frozen if not eliminated, if they even had a pension, better get on board with the new culture. They can’t hang onto the old workplace culture lies and still retire. Not when 401K matches are being reduced or ended or when lay offs are frequently handed out. Not when you are expected to keep working harder for ridiculously low salary increases.  Boomers need learn that loyalty should be shifted away from your company and their leadership and instead limited to your team, your project, and building your own brand and skill-sets.

In Closing

As a late baby boomer my feeling about the new culture is I love it. It fits perfectly with my “retire early and often” passion-driven lifestyle. I believe the millennial generation has the right career-mindset. Gen-X is on-board too. The new reality is you are only as good as your last gig. As far as the company you work for. Loyalty isn’t talked about.

Let me know if you think I‘m full of crap about my views about the boomers retirement downfall is loyalty. Please leave a comment to support my thinking.