Baby Boomers

BAKA, DEEDA, OJI, Gunga, Leelee, Uma, Zayda and Wahoo share something beyond membership in the baby-talk hall of fame: These Americans are allergic to the terms "Grandfather" and "Grandmother." Those well-trod names have become too old. At least for the 39 million baby boomers who are now exploring the even more youthful world of Babies "R" Us. "The name thing is an issue," observes Chris Crosby, publisher of Grand, a magazine for grandparents. "We all grew up in a culture that put a negative connotation on the terminology we used.

AS MANY OLDER WORKERS DELAY retirement, employers are scrambling to reconcile the work styles and values of the people who still use Cross pens and those who demand Blackberrys. Many workplaces now routinely host as many as four generations of employees. There are the baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, and the Gen Xers, born from 1965 to 1980. To either end are the traditionalists, born in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and the millennials, born from 1981 to 2000. One of the biggest challenges is getting everyone on the same page, er, screen.

Rename them the real estate boomer generation: A comprehensive new demographic study reveals that the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 have a passion for owning real estate unlike any in the nation's history. Consider these findings: Ninety-six percent of all boomers believe that owning a home is a very smart financial investment, and nearly 4 out of 5 now own homes, while 1 in 4 boomers owns other forms of real estate besides a primary home. These include one or more vacation or seasonal retreats, acreage or income-earning property.

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke called yesterday for urgent reform of Social Security and Medicare, warning that failure to do so soon could lead to dire economic consequences for future generations. Speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, Bernanke said that projected funding shortfalls for Social Security and Medicare threaten "large and unavoidable" fiscal consequences. Absent action soon, he warned, the nation could be forced to raise taxes sharply, trim retiree benefits, cut deeply into other government programs, and run up the national debt - or some combination of all. Beginning in 2008, the first wave of baby boomers - 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 - begin taking early retirement.

There are an estimated 78.2 million baby boomers across the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and they're starting to shove off across the River Styx for the great beyond. This is the generation that thought it could cheat death by eternally exercising, jogging, slathering themselves with anti-aging skin care products and sunscreen, while eating truckloads of arugula washed down with a latte from Starbucks. But alas, it's not to be, and as the poet observed so long ago: "Time and tide wait for no man."

The equity you build up in your home is not a retirement-savings account, although many Americans are tempted to think that it is. The smartest way to think about home equity, financial planners say, is as a cushion, a spare tire in reserve just in case savings calculations are off or liquid assets run out. Shelter is a necessity, and so many planners classify the home as a "use asset," a consumer need in the same class as a car or sofa. "It's a place to live, not a brokerage account," said Sherman L. Doll, a personal financial specialist with Capital Performance Advisors in Walnut Creek, Calif.

WASHINGTON -- Almost one in two American families are headed toward years of financial struggle in retirement, according to a new report that says workers are unprepared for cuts in pension and Social Security income. The Boston College study presumes that most people need to replace 65 percent to 85 percent of their annual income in their working years to stay secure in retirement. But 43 percent of U.S. households will fall at least 10 percent short of that range, the study found, using what it said were conservative projections.

Mary Jane Good advises start-up companies, volunteers with several community groups and is actively considering investment opportunities as she slowly diversifies out of a large position in her former employer's stock. Today, she chairs the Greater Cincinnati chapter of Score, a national nonprofit group that offers business counseling to entrepreneurs. "It's altogether different today," said Good, 71. "The baby boomers have a different perspective on retirement. Psychologically, people used to associate retirement with golf and bridge, but that's not the way we think anymore."

The war for talented workers is heating up in corporate America. Managers face competing pressures in recruiting: the upcoming retirement of the baby boomers, low unemployment and the high costs of training new workers. The pressures are forcing companies to spend more energy on making the right hiring decision from the start because they already know that the wrong one can hurt morale, lower productivity or even cause embarrassment for years to come. Besides traditional methods such as vetting resumes, checking references and conducting extensive interviews, some employers are relying more on online personality tests and other assessment tools to help make better hiring decisions.

When Dutch insurer Aegon NV, which has its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore, ventured into China in mid-2003, the SARS virus was gripping the nation and Chinese authorities had begun to quarantine thousands of people. But rather than delay opening for business, the insurer unveiled a new product that would cover SARS-related deaths and medical expenses for a year. "We didn't sell a whole lot of policies, but it gave us a lot of interesting publicity in China," Aegon Chairman Donald J. Shepard said in an interview yesterday.