The Baby Boom or those who were born after World War II have influenced the economy from the day they were born because of the numbers. When they were young a demand for new schools occurred, as they were older the expansion of the post secondary institutions and then into the workforce where many new jobs were created. As their normal lives have come they are beginning to reach retirement age. This is the magic number which the government begins to pay you because you are 65 or older. For many, they have pension plans which begin to pay and for a good number they will have personal savings or investments. If they were fortunate to live in the good area, the value of their homes has increased which could be sold and the money invested. When someone goes into retirement, the amount of leisure can go up. What will this group do or not do and because the numbers of seniors will increase, what they do or do not do will have an effect on the economy. This is the premise behind the book The Leisure Economy by Linda Nazareth published by John Wiley & Sons, Toronto, 2007.

What we do know is the Baby Boomer senior will have some that struggle, some that are content to not to spend, some able to spend on something and some able to spend on everything. Much will depend on health or the perception of health; if the person feels healthy they are able to do just about anything. Traditionally baby boomer families (2-3) are smaller in size than the families they came from (5-6) – the grandchildren maybe spent upon. In theory the leisure economy means people have more time, but errands can seemingly take up more time to do. In general, they are still people and do all the same things people generally do. If they love it, they spend more time and money on it. Occasionally waves happen, when they seemingly do something at once.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, theses stocks always feel pressure both in terms of market and attracting people to work for them. The market tends to change and companies have to be adaptable and with the hiring of the workforce – the next generations will typically not give as much to the company as the past generation did.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.