Alarming news from the AARP
May 13, 2008
The ‘economic downturn’ isn’t just causing grown children to ask their parents for financial help - but often the other way around.
One in ten baby boomers are borrowing money from family, friends or charities for living expenses, the AARP reports. (Still, more boomers are helping their kids (4 in 10) or a parent (8%) than asking for help themselves.)
Here’s the scarier finding: One-third of the boomers (over 1,000 were surveyed) said they’ve stopped putting money into their retirement account, while 14% had to cut back on their medications. A nurse in Salisbury, Md. told the AP that patients have cut back on appointments to save the co-pay.
From the story:
While the survey doesn’t show large numbers of people making radical changes — taking second jobs or moving to a smaller home — it did find that more than one-quarter of those surveyed are having trouble paying their mortgage or rent.
Compared with older people, a greater percentage of younger baby boomers, those 45 to 54, said they were cutting back on medications, prematurely withdrawing retirement funds and postponing paying bills.
“For the younger boomers, it’s been an especially rude wake-up call,” said Jim Dau, a spokesman for the AARP, a nonprofit that advocates Americans 50 and older.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
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