Baby Boomers Surviving In Hard Times Again!

Bankruptcy is when a person or business officially declares the inability to pay back creditors the money that was previously borrowed. This should only be done as a last resort, because bankruptcy will affect every aspect of your life. It will also affect your ability to get loans, mortgages, and credit card in the future. However, for some people, declaring bankruptcy means finding freedom once again. It wipes your slate clean so to speak, and you can start over again with your credit.
However, there are a number of things you should try before you declare bankruptcy. One of these things is debt consolidation. Deb consolidation cannot help everybody concerned with money problems, but for some, it is jus the boost needed to keep them from declaring bankruptcy.
Debt consolidation is basically taking all of your loans and paying them off using one large loan. You then have one monthly bill to pay instead of a number of smaller bills. This can save you money in the long run. Why? The one large loan will usually have a secured lower fixed interest rate. This is especially advisable if you are considering declaring bankruptcy because of high credit card debts.

Credit cards have very high interest rates—usually much higher than any other kind of loan. If you miss just one month of paying your card in full, you may never get back on track for paying off the balance. This can really start to add up if you find that you have more than one card. If you are far into debt, you can probably not get an unsecured loan from a financial institution, like a bank. However, you should be able to get a secured loan. A secured loan uses your house, car, or other possessions as collateral. With a lower interest rate, you can start making headway into your debt instead of simply making the minimum monthly payments. This will help you to avoid bankruptcy.

Consolidating your debts may not be the best choice for everyone. In fact, in some cases, bankruptcy is really the best way to get back on the financial fast track. However, it is important to realize that you have choices. If you don’t have to declare bankruptcy, avoid it and you will find that your life will be financially easier to handle in the future. It depends on your unique situation. Talk to a financial professional if you want more help learning about debt consolidation.

Dan Silver

Baby Boomers and Drug Abuse, Hear From the Experts

Historically, substance abuse is primarily concentrated among teens as well as young adults. However, the major concern lies on older adults. As the baby boomers ages, the older adult's population increases contributing in the large proportions of marijuana users and other prohibited drugs.

It is a fact that baby boomer followers have greater population compared to other followers. So it is expected that percentage of people using illicit drugs would also increase in just a few decades. Joseph Gfroerer uses the recent data of the surveys conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in presenting current prevalence and patterns and latest trends in using illicit drugs. 

The 4.4 % of the baby boomers population ages 50-59 years old admitted that they used prohibited drugs as been reported by the United States Government. The age group's percentage increased as supported by the nationwide surveys on Health and Drug Use. However, the use of illicit drugs among teenagers decreased to 9.9 % from 11.6% in 2005.

The director's assistant of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, David Murray said that contrasting phenomenon like this rarely occurs. The survey that was conducted involved interviews of approximately 67,500 people. It provides snapshots that are very importantly associated on how Americans smoke, drink, and use drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana.

The use of drugs stayed relatively unchanged for Americans ages 12 year old and above in 2005. There were about 19.7 million Americans who use illicit drugs which increase its percentage to 8.1% from a 7.9%. The increase was not solely contributed by boomers, but also those people ages 18 to 25 years old ranking the highest percentage in terms of using illicit drugs ranging to 20.1% from a 19.4%.

Federal officials posted their comments about these reports because they only emphasized the decrease of drug use among young teens without reporting the increase in among the 18-25 age groups.

Eric B. Broderick, an Assistant General Surgeon even asked if fundamental shifts like this really occur among youngsters in America. The 18-25 age brackets also called by Murray as gauntlets where everybody runs. In addition, the use of drugs among youths in the US reaches its peak during the late 70s bringing the baggage with them as they age 50-60 years old.

The percentage of baby boomers that uses illicit drugs increased since 2002 and reveals that Marijuana was their choice. The report was true revealing 14.6 million Marijuana users, 6.4 million people uses prescription drugs such as sedatives or tranquilizers and pain relievers, and 2.4 million people using cocaine. The 60% of these users exposed that they obtain the drugs from a friend or relative for free. An average of 4.3% users bought drugs from strangers or drug dealers. 

The Bureau of Census said that there are 78.2 million boomers born between 1946 and 1964. As been studied, abuse of substances like drugs became a part of their lives as they get older. The National Drug Control Policy director John Walters even said that some baby boomers carried this habit throughout their lives.

However, the editor of High Times (advocacy magazine on marijuana), Steve Hager said that ailing people ages 55 years old chooses marijuana over anti-depressants and sleeping pills while 60 year old and above uses it as pain relievers for glaucoma and related maladies.

However, the United States government never recognizes the medical benefits of marijuana although eleven states permit using it for medical reasons. Marijuana is considered the most well-known illicit drug used by about 6% users. Prescription drugs and stimulants is the second with a 2.6% user.

Other evidences of using drugs among baby boomers were revealed when a large number of them showed up for treatments. Moreover, overdose deaths are another reason. Those baby boomers that were caught smoking weed at Woodstock continue on with their habits until now.

Mr. Murray's good news was that young people in today's generation have learned the mistakes done by their parents. More teenagers are staying away from using illicit drugs and other harmful substances like tobacco and alcohol. The self-destruction pattern created by baby boomers is prevented in the coming generations thus this activity is well sustained. This promises a good future on the health of Americans.

Daniel Silver

A version of this article appeared in print on April 20, 2009, on page B1 of the New York edition.
A billboard in Times Square for Target features an older woman on a bicycle.
By STUART ELLIOTT
 Published: April 19, 2009
 When Brian Gordon and his partners started ebeanstalk.com, which sells children’s learning toys online, they expected most of business to come from younger consumers starting families. But a recent customer survey found that up to 40 percent were actually older, mainly grandparents.
If you’d asked me if 4 out of 10 people would be grandparents, I’d have said, ‘No, that’s not going to happen,’ ” Mr. Gordon said.Also surprising, Mr. Gordon says, is that despite the economy, sales are up about 65 percent so far this year compared with a year earlier. He attributed that largely to older consumers, who “are our most demanding customers” but are more willing than their younger counterparts are to pay full price.
The experience of ebeanstalk.com illustrates a growing trend as the recession grinds on: an increasing interest in marketing goods and services to consumers age 50 and older. Among those aiming more at the older demographic are giants like Chrysler, Kraft Foods, L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble and Target.
The interest has also been a boon to media outlets that appeal to older viewers. CBS, home of “60 minutes” and the “CSI” franchise, is first in the network ratings, and while all magazines have had their advertising pages hammered, some titles for more mature readers, including AARP magazine and Family Circle, have suffered smaller downturns.
For decades, older consumers were largely shunned by marketers because they were deemed less wealthy, less likely to try new products and less willing to change brands. Campaigns directed at them were described dismissively as made for the “Geritol generation.” As much as older consumers were to be shunned, young consumers — ages 18 to 34, or 18 to 49 — were desired for what were deemed their free-spending ways, eagerness to sample new products and brand-switching proclivities. The idea that they were starting in life with a proverbial blank slate of marketing wants and needs was catnip to product peddlers.
Read the whole article here

There are fewer worries when you're a kid. Your parents provide for all your material and emotional needs. As a person grows old, their needs and wants also grow with them. And finally, when they graduate college, it is now time to start a life of their own.

Looking for the right career that is of great interest to you can be quite hard. But if you successfully choose a good career and decide to keep it, you're life will be worth living.

There are many career paths to take. So before anything else, you should make sure that you're on the right path. Oftentimes, people end up with a job or career that they are not interested in; they simply manage to push through with it because they need the money.

In today's hard times, having a good paying job is already enough. You can finance all your expenses, most especially if you have children to support. But if the situation is like this, a time will come when you will finally get tired of doing a work that you're not interested in.

If you belong in the generation of the baby boomers, you already have a career by now. You're the type of person who wants to work harder and for longer hours. If you want a career change, it's never too late. In fact, most of the baby boomers in the workforce are retiring late, and there are still those who change their careers. Most boomers want to continue in contributing or working even after they retire.

It's common to change a career in your lifetime. You can even find people who changed their careers more than three times. The reason behind this is that they haven't found yet the right career that they can be satisfied with, and what they love doing. Perhaps they will stop changing careers only after they found what suits their needs and wants.

Confronting a career change for a baby boomer can be a bit difficult. Boomers grew up in a prosperous world, where everything was easy for them to have like education and their material needs. And with today's competitive market, a baby boomer should be able to compete with other capable people.

It would be better to view a career change as an opportunity to find a better career, one that will suit you best. You should find a job that you love doing and one that you could be satisfied with until you retire from work.

Around 3% of people going through changes in their career are only forced to do so because they were laid-off and about 4.5% just want to explore something else. Undergoing a shift in career will be much easier, enjoyable, and productive if you do a couple of things like:

1.    assess your skills and see if it can be used in other jobs
2.    money doesn't matter to most people; so find a job that is meaningful for you, one that you love doing
3.    find where your passion lies
4.    always be realistic; if your skills doesn't suit the job, you're probably better of without it
5.    do you want to stay in the profession or do you want a radical change in your career
6.    if you're satisfied with the present company that you belong, perhaps you can ask for re-training
7.    don't mind your age, what's important is your skills and the things that you can do
8.    you can join organizations in the field that you're interested in

These are just few of the things that you can do before seeking for a new career. Your job experience matters in getting into another career, as well as relevant trainings.

Change is natural. The world changes every day; inventions can happen overnight. But with a career change, you can't do it with the snap of your finger. You should consider a lot of things like your family, your needs, and other important matters.

It's never too late for baby boomers. You've lived your life long enough as a happy-go-lucky individual. It's time to stick with the realities of life and start working hard in your new-found career.

If you would like to have a free ecourse on the opportunities now available, you can get it here.

If you are enjoying how you live today in the United States, you should realize that the freedom you enjoy is the work of the past generation. Today, there is less discrimination and people are now fully enjoying their civil rights as a citizen of the United States. You should realize the fact that a particular generation is one of the major contributors in the society that you see today.

This generation is called the baby boomers generation. So, what is the baby boomers generation? First of all, baby boomers were people who were born between the years 1946 to 1964. This generation is called baby boomers generation because of the significant increase in birth rate during these years.

Baby boomers play a very distinct role in society today and are very politically active. This is because of the way they grew up. The baby boomers generation grew up in a world where the Vietnam War started and civil rights protests were active. It is important for you to remember that early baby boomers came of age during the times where civil rights, the Vietnam War and conscription were being protested.

You should also realize the fact that most baby boomers grew up in an era where the cold war started. Because of the political condition of their country where they grew up in, baby boomers are well aware of their civil rights and also about the different political situations and policies that the country is facing today. Besides, they were the ones who contributed in emphasizing more freedom and they also contributed in equality of all citizens of the United States. This is one of the reasons why the United States is experiencing less or no discrimination at work. Thanks to baby boomers, every American citizen will be able to have equal opportunity for employment regardless of race, creed, gender and age.

Baby boomers were also born in times where the American Military virtually dominated the world. For this reason, you will see that the baby boomers generation presidents, namely Bill Clinton and the incumbent President George W. Bush emphasized widely on civil rights and also in reforming and increasing funds for the US Military research and development.

You will also see that they also increased NASA funding because they were born in the era where space travel started.

In the internet, you will see that there are a lot of studies about baby boomers. You will see their history and also the projected future.

In the internet, you will see news that concerns baby boomers, such as retirement and health benefits. The reason for the concern of the United States government is about the retirement and health benefits funding. Because of the significantly high population of baby boomers today, the government projects that it affects will slow down the economic growth of the United States. This is because funding will be concentrated on the retirement of baby boomers, especially now that baby boomers are starting to enter the retirement age.

Government and private sectors concerned are now working together to fund the retirement and health benefits of baby boomers. The Social Security and the Medicare are two of the sectors concerned in the retirement of the large population of baby boomers in the United States.

In fact, there were about 78 million births during the baby boomers era. Today, the baby boomers make up 22% of the total American population. With this kind of population, who wouldn't be concerned when most of the baby boomers retire?

The fact that the birth rate declined after the baby boomers era, it is a reality that workforce will decrease and retirees will increase. This means less income for the country and more expenses for the retirees. This is why the government and numerous private organizations are now taking the necessary steps to provide sufficient financial and health retirement benefits to baby boomers.

Always remember that these people helped contribute a lot in politics, academic, culture, and also in the industrial sector. They helped in making what the country is today. This is why it is just right that the government and private sectors concerned should repay them when they go into retirement.
Daniel Silver

iDemographers' defined the baby boom as a birth surge started in 1946, after the World War II and reached its peak in 1957 and continued until 1964 because of the postwar prosperity. Most people uses "generation" as their term but demographers precisely referred it as "cohort" (group of individuals experiencing a certain event within a specified time). This reveals that social changes interconnect with the life of every baby boomer.

There two groups of baby boomers. The babies born from 1946 to 1955 were called early boomers. Those who were born from 1956 to 1964 were called as late boomers. The last set of late boomers were born during the first tour of Beatles in America and the first early boomers was approximately 18 years that time. Baby boomers were noticeable because of their big populations. They crowded junior high, elementary schools, high schools, labor market, and colleges.

Studies show that the impacts brought about by the society where baby boomers grew up contributes a lot in reshaping the society. They never think like their parents. Because the population of these cohorts is unprecedented during the 20th century, their beliefs and behaviors are then predicted to dominate things.

But there is also a great discrepancy in terms of economic status between early boomers and late boomers. Compared to the energetic job market and emerging economy laid beneath the feet of early boomers, late boomers needs adjustment on economic shifts. It is due to the rapid growth of service sectors, jobs for middle class became less stable, changing locations of workers, and career market adjustments.

Most boomers considered economic security as an elusive thing. They are the people who were born after the era of civil rights. Conducted studies even reveals income differences according to ethnicity, race, and birthplace creating ethnic classes. It was because one third of the population of baby boomers Hispanic, African-American, or Asian besides the black and white Americans. Take for instance, the black boomer's generation are considered inferior than whites, although the generation of baby boomers were rated the best in terms of education.

It is a fact that the life of baby boomers was accompanied by postwar transformations changing the American society. The ideas about sexuality, gender, and family were altered profoundly. Likewise, parenthood changed, old age and retirement was redefined, and labor forces were transformed. Even in their old age, they seize opportunity to stay involved and active like staying in their work force to meet the responsibilities of supporting their children.

The changes in the society were never brought solely by stereotype baby boomers but also the conservative types like Seth Grossman. The stereotype boomers expressed themselves through street protests while the conservative boomers use other forms such as leaflets, student newspapers, and forums. Although their actions did not attract the attention of media but they achieved their success when they forced a referendum which resulted in the withdrawal of Duke students from the National Student Association.

Conservative boomers may not be a part of the projected boomer's image but they became a strong force in making their way silently. They are not even in the front page of the newspapers because they still attend their class while others were boycotting. Nevertheless, these conservative boomers have supported conservative politicians like George Wallace in 1968.  

One third of the populations of early boomers served during the Vietnam War. Other boomers made a name in different fields throughout history. Joyce Johnson was an African-American who belongs to the stereotype boomers her activist work in her graduate school. When she entered Duke School, she sought for advancement not only for herself but her entire race. She belongs in the Afro-American Society involved in the iconic events in the Duke campus during the 60s. Grossman and Johnson are baby boomers who contributed great change in their society.

Deep understanding about the baby boom generation is very important as they advanced on to their old age. It should be more of demographic curiosities because if demographic bulge move continuously on the system, then economic differences also persists. These baby boomers once do their best in shaping the society providing significant impacts on the lives of many people besides themselves.

Daniel Silver

Every individual is unique in his own way. This makes him different from anyone else. Even brothers and sisters differ a lot. But with every person's distinct characteristics, he should still be able achieve good relationship with other people.

Many generations have been in existence for years now. And each generation is identified with certain uniqueness from other generations. If you're a baby boomer, you probably know this by now.

What then is a baby boomer? Baby boomers are those born after the Second World War. It includes babies born from 1946 to 1964 during the time of prosperity after the war.

Baby Boomers are identified for their characteristics very much different from other generations. This maybe because they all grew up in a world that is generally dominated by the American Military. They lived in a world that offers new wonders like marvelous gadgets, household appliances. And during that time, very seldom can you find unemployed individuals. This means that almost all families enjoyed a prosperous life.

The academic leadership, cultural, political and industrial classes are almost dominated by baby boomers. The most prominent individuals are George Bush and Bill Clinton. They are both baby boomers and they both illustrate a diverging range of attitudes and values.

The families of baby boomers have the largest household incomes in America. There are early boomers, as well as late boomers. This generation is identified mostly of the early boomers because the late boomers didn't experience the military draft. The late boomers however, were more identified of the different cultural factors that they were able to share.

These late boomers are also known as early generation X's. At present, they are now in the stage where they want to leave a mark in history. The baby boomer's birth is a part of history, and this may be the reason why they are idealists in their own right. Boomers are expected to have a big impact and influence over cultural and political matters. They often belong to the higher echelons of power; and these leaders exhibit decisiveness, vision, and they can withstand even the worst of every situation.

But the baby boomers are not only known for their positive character. They also have destructive tendencies like selfishness, arrogance, and ruthlessness that can result to a outright despotism or factional strife.

During a baby boomer's midlife, they often re-evaluate everything that has something to do with their personal life. Those having families focus on the triumph and failures of their kids because they only want what's best for them. Some boomers even go the extent of managing their children's lives.

Boomers are over-protective parents. They want to sanitize almost everything that their children can see, including television programs. This is in contrast to their early childhood when they themselves want to indulge in almost everything with fewer restrictions. Through their kids, they seek to bring improvements to the society.

Though baby boomers are known as the counter-cultural type and as hippies, they also have passions for social and personal improvement. But this is usually exhibited once they age out.

Baby boomers were greatly criticized as ageist and anti -youth. This is further evidenced by their catchphrase 'don't trust anyone over 30'. But not all baby boomers are like this, there are also those who abide by the social norms of the society during their time.

Boomer or not, they are all important individuals who can contribute a great deal to the world. People should not concentrate mainly on the generation that they are identified with; but they should make it a point to do all things that can contribute to the peace and prosperity of humankind.

Every person has his or her positive and negative characteristics. Nobody's perfect, and that is a true and proven fact. There are individuals who are known to be perfectionists but this doesn't mean that are perfect as a person. It's but natural to commit mistakes as a human being. The most important thing is to learn from the mistakes in the past; and is you want to improve yourself; you may do so but make sure that it is for the better.

Daniel Silver


 

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