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Boomercide

Where Can You Afford To Live? Global Cost Of Living.

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I was in New York recently. My NYC crew talks about how much things cost. I think its a big city thing. Jane’s one-bedroom in Long Island City is $1,750 a month (a deal, I think); Megan’s family’s apartment on Madison Avenue and 61st Street is in the millions; Brooklyn has gone from early gentrifiers to hipsters to Wall Streeters.

So where can most of us afford to live if we wanted to move to a new local? Portland, my home town, is 56% less expensive than New York according to the database site Expatistan.This is one of the reasons that Portland is now a destination for people looking for a more affordable lifestyle. Portland’s hip, affordable lifestyle is definitely on the minds of New Yorkers.

I lived in London for a few years as a salaried expat (the way to do it given that London is the fifth most expensive city in the world — and 70% more expensive than Portland.) In those days, my agency Saatchi & Saatchi covered our rent, gave me a cost of living increase,  paid any extra taxes and sent us all home once a year in business class. A good deal.

Today? I probably can’t do London on my dime but I do dream of living outside of the USA again. Visit Expatistan, check out a rage of global cost of living factoids and dream. Hyderabad, anyone?

Best Places To Retire (Really?)

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“Best Places to Retire” is one of those standard go-to magazine and website articles designed to capture the dreams of Baby Boomers. I get it. They  usually include a mix of criteria like cost-of-living; climate; the economy; health care; recreation and occasionally culture.

Me? I need culture. I need intellectual stimulation not another discussion about someone’s daily hike. Here is a story. I was crossing Broadway on New York’s upper west side a few years ago and stopped to talk with an elderly woman sitting on a bench on the strip that divided the roadway. I asked her why she lives in New York. She said, “I feel free because I can get anywhere on buses or hop in a cab; I can have food and wine delivered right to my door; I have hundreds of restaurants to choose from; the best bagels in the world; the best medical care; I am surrounded by people and energy; I can go to Lincoln Center, the opera, museums, plays all at a discount and people like you stop to talk. Why would I live anywhere else?” By the way, Selma had one big advantage… she lives in a rent control apartment.

You know what? New York is NEVER listed as a best place to live in these articles. Not in US News, Forbes, CNNMoney, CBS News or AARP. What’s up with this? I mean, does living in Utah sound enticing? Guess what? It makes some lists? Have you ever been to Provo? In the winter? Tried to buy a bagel?

OK, New York and a couple of other major cultural centers do make a list. In this case on a smart website from the Milkin Institute’s Best Cities for Successful Aging. Check it out.

 

 

Will You Be One Of America’s New Authors? One of 200 Million.

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I am busy publishing my book as an eBook in Amazon’s KDP program and as a print-on-demand paperback using its CreateSpace platform. Down to the final details.

As part of the launch, I have written a 5,000 word white paper on my publishing process to help other fledgling authors give birth to their first book. I’ll get the paper up on the website in a couple of days. In the meantime, I cannot stress enough that we are experiencing an explosion in self-published books. Here are a couple of related facts:

According to the PEW Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project For Research: “As of February 2012, 21% of Americans had read an eBook, and that owners of e-readers read an average of eight books a year more than people without the devices (24 vs. 16).”

 The New York Times reported “According to a recent survey, 81 percent of people feel that they have a book in them…and should write it.” If you do the math, that represents over 200 million people in the U.S. who want to write a book in their lifetime.

Add the ease and low cost of self-publishing to the 200 million and you see why eBook revenues will soar. Here are some statistics.

The American Retirement Savings Deficit Meets China

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A central theme in “Boomercide” is our retirement savings deficit. According to Retirement USA, the difference between what Americans will need for retirement and what they have actually saved is $6.6 trillion.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute reports on the average retirement savings of various age groups. The current figures are scary:

Workers ages 45-54 have saved just under $44,000.

Baby boomers, those aged 55-64, have approximately $65,000 in savings.

People 65+ have saved $56,000. If you retire at 65 and live to 85, that $56,000 doesn’t go very far.

According to Reuters’ article “China slides faster into pensions black hole”, it looks looks like we are not alone. China is graying a an incredibly fast pace and the one child policy is a major issue. Here are some of their numbers:

“Policy makers and economists have long been worried about the financial burden of China’s expanding patchwork of pension schemes, but those concerns have recently escalated as its rural pension scheme took off in the past three years.

The funding shortage is daunting: economists say it could blow out to a whopping $10.8 trillion in the next 20 years from $2.6 trillion in 2010, towering over China’s $3 trillion onshore savings, the biggest hoard of domestic savings in the world.

Funding shortfalls hit 16.5 trillion yuan in 2010, the two economists said, and will quadruple to a stunning 68.2 trillion yuan by 2033. That is about 40 percent of China’s gross domestic product, assuming its economy grows 6 percent a year.

Unless China diverts 80 percent of dividends from listed state firms to pension funds to balance the pension account by 2050, they said, the nation may suffer “enormous fiscal stress”.”

College Costs Gone Wild!

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No question, one of the more wonderful shared Baby Boomer experiences has been paying for college education. I have two kids and they went to private four-year colleges. Cost? Tuition + food + housing + allowance = (?) lets say $450,000. Whenever I mention this to other parents, I get those wonderful all-knowing shared twisted smiles. I also love mentioning these numbers to my friends with younger kids. Yes, I am a sadist.

Now, don’t get me that wrong. I happily paid for my Kids to go to University of San Francisco and Bard College. There is absolutely no question that they benefited from their college experiences. As a business owner I interviewed lots of graduates. Many of whom couldn’t think critically, talk or write. My kids can actually do these things and do them very well. But, $450,000 makes me feel like an idiot.

What really blows my mind is that our generation let the price of  college go stratospheric. We allowed college administrators and faculty to over-design expensive campus buildings and over pay academics. The overall inflation rate since 1986 increased 115%. On the other hand, during the same time, tuition increased a whopping 498%.

What are the colleges really going to get for soaking us? Fewer students, jobs and even fewer colleges. Just as newspaper classifieds and record stores (remember them?) were disinter-mediated by Craigslist and iTunes, so will over-priced colleges get nailed by new online college competitors like Coursera. Coursera’s tagline? Take the World’s Best Courses, Online, For Free.