The Grandparents Give Back ? Redefining Generation ?Me? (pt. 2 ...

Part One of this two-part posting, ?The Re-Defining of The Me Generation? referenced the four trends demonstrating how Boomers ? the one-time poster children of self-absorption ? have become increasingly other-directed. The trends cited in that post were: 1) Looking to their legacy;? 2) Healthy aging; 3) Redefining aging; and 4) Back to ?The Meaning of Life.?

Selling to Boomers? Say hello to your newest competition: The Grandchild. In the fight for "Hearts and Minds" ? let alone share of pocketbook ? how are you liking your chances?

Now in this sequel, ?The Grandparents Give Back,? I wanted to share another documented trend: Boomers are hitting the life stage when grandchildren enter the scene ? with some interesting similarities and differences to previous generations of ?Gramps & Grams.?

GrandBoomers are sharing the wealth ? with their youngest generation. Granted, grandparents have always given to their grandchildren. But today, according to a survey by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, even at the height of the Great Recession nearly two-thirds of America?s grandparents provided an estimated $370 billion in financial support to their grandkids over the previous five years. That averages out to $8,661 per grandparent household.

?Grandparents are filling the gaps,? said Amy Goyer, a grandparents expert with the AARP, as quoted in a Star Tribune article. ?They?re paying for the school trips, the sports, the costs of extracurricular activities.? The gist is that today?s ?GrandBoomers? are sharing on an unprecedented scale. And, just as Baby Boomers have transformed every stage of their lifecycle, it is likely that their new role as grandparent will be no different.

Note also, that the dollar amount in the MetLife survey does not include money given to support adult children, which trickles down to grandkids. Neither does it include non-monetary assistance provided by grandparents, especially child care.? So it?s likely that grandparents are spending even more than that figure.

Financial Power: Grandparents will spend an estimated $52 billion on their grandchildren in 2011.*

Boomers are buying the big-ticket items. The chart at left shows significant spending for the youngsters? education. (*chart from Grandparents.com). According to a 2002 survey from AARP, more than half of these grandparents say they have helped or will help pay for their grandchild?s higher education expenses.

And a sheepskin isn?t all they are helping to finance. A national survey commissioned by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate finds that Baby Boomers are also helping their children or grandchildren become homeowners. According to that survey, one in five Baby Boomers has already gifted, loaned, or co-signed a loan to support their children or grandchildren when purchasing a home. And over two-thirds of Baby Boomers wish to provide this type of support in the future.

This is just the start of the trend. Today, AARP estimates that there are over 74 million million grandparents in the U.S. As older grandparents live longer, and as more and more Baby Boomers or ?GrandBoomers? join the ranks of grand parenthood times are changing. Grandparents in America are the youngest they have ever been, with the average first-time grandparent now just 47, according to the Washington, D.C.-based AARP.

How today's "GrandBoomers" differ from non-boomer grandparents, per the AARP Study

How are Boomers different from previous G?parents? In the AARP study noted above, GrandBoomers reported higher levels of purchasing than non-Boomers in all categories in the survey regarding reasons for spending (see table). GrandBoomers reported slightly higher frequencies than non-Boomers in purchasing for birthdays and holidays. However, GrandBoomers reported much higher percentages than non-Boomers in spending for necessities, as well as seeming more susceptible to impulse spending.

So in summary ??First, I must admit that to my jaundiced eye, a question remains regarding the AARP study: Did those ?non-Boomers? spend similarly on their kids and grandkids when in their younger years? Is their current spending due to a Boomer generational difference, or because today all family generations are older, the non-Boomer grandparents are on more restricted fixed income, their children are more advanced in their earning years, and? their grandchildren are older, with different needs than GrandBoomers?

Regardless, the numbers cited above from all sources, as well as the points covered in part 1 of this post, tell a compelling tale. That amount of smoke, PR machines alone can?t generate without some fuel: There?s a fire. And it?s definitely worth consideration, if you ??along with the grandchildren ??are looking to get into the aging Boomer?s pockets. They are only so deep, and those little ankle biters are pretty dang cute!

Source: http://www.nogreenbananas.net/2012/03/09/the-grandparents-give-back-redefining-generation-me-pt-2/

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