If you were born within approximately 20 years of the immediate post-war period (between 1945 and 1965) then you can call yourself a Baby Boomer.
This period saw a boom in the number of births in Britain, as couples quickly began to settle down after the war.
The Baby Boomers have had a significant impact on the world in which we live.
Below we take a look at five ways the Baby Boomer generation has changed the financial landscape in the UK.
The first teenagers
Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley may have been replaced by Rihanna and The Black Eyed Peas; the juke-box replaced by the iPod; TV by YouTube; but the Baby Boomers were undoubtedly the first generation to experience what we would still recognise today as teenage years.
With the rise of consumerism and disposable incomes, the Baby Boomers set the template of what later generations would rebel against, love and hate. Before the Baby Boomers it was a swift move from childhood into adulthood.
The first consumers
The Baby Boomers taught us all how to shop. The first generation in history on mass to have the benefits of increased income, more leisure time and plenty of enticing ways to spend their disposable cash, the Baby Boomers as a generation are model consumers, certainly when compared to the inter-war generation who experienced the economic Depression of the 1930s.
Property
Although as a nation we have always been obsessed with property ownership, the Baby Boomers have taken property ownership to new heights. This is the generation who were lucky enough to benefit from right-to-buy schemes of council property under Margaret Thatcher; spiralling house price inflation; and the emergence of private buy-to-let Landlords.
The Baby Boomers like property and as a generation have done much to push up prices by increasing demand on our already low supply of housing stock, making it difficult for younger generations to get a foot on the ladder.
Innovation
Has there been a more innovative generation than the Baby Boomers? The first teenagers continue to be rebels into pension-hood, fuelling innovation wherever they go.
In areas such as music, the Boomers can boast the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elton John among their number – as well as all the other stars of sixties pop culture; Hollywood stars such as Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.
In technology and business, the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson and Sir James Dyson are all Boomers; and in the political field boomers include the likes of Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Pensions
Baby Boomers have benefitted from private company pension schemes and final salary schemes like no generation before or since. For most workers in their thirties or forties to think about retiring on full or even half pay at the age of 60 or 65 in the future is simply unimaginable. Many Baby Boomers achieved this feat.
If you are a part of the baby boomers generation and want to make sure you leave something behind for the next generation, Over 50s Life Cover could be an option.
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