Boomer-Lit And The Silver Economy
By: Robert Bush
Tags: Aging, Books, Literature, Boomers, Retirement

Yup, these really are things

Photo by Skye Studios on Unsplash

I have only just heard of Boomer-Lit. I’m sure it’s just me and you all have been discussing Boomer-Lit for years, but that’s how it is. I admit I had heard of Chic-Lit, but Boomer-Lit was a new one on me.

We Baby Boomers were born after the war in the period from 1946–1964 and we were first called Boomers in 1963 when a newspaper article commented that college applications were beginning to rocket as the first Boomer children came of age.

Our youth was a time of a rapidly changing societal dynamic that gave us huge and previously unheard of opportunities, and we could not have been more different to our parents whose lives had been ravaged by war and depression and unemployment.

Life exploded for us as we became teenagers; fashion, music and sex all became major parts of our lives.

And then after a few years of rebellion and embracing the counter culture we gave all that up and got a haircut and found a job. We bought a house and had some kids and that took care of the next 40 years.

But now all of a sudden we’re important again and we’re in the news. We’re a huge demographic and people are taking notice of us.

Books are being written by us and for us, Boomer-Lit, and films are being made featuring us. We’re popular and we’re in demand.

You only have to see Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in the 2017 film “Our Souls at Night” to know that. Redford is amazing, leaning towards the craggy these days but still a huge presence, and Jane Fonda at 80, although she admits to some enhancement, is quite honestly stunning.

And the story is one of positivity; it’s not all over, things can happen to you in later life, you can still have a great time.

Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, they’re still going strong. Robert de Niro says ‘You’ll have time to rest when you’re dead‘.’

The film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel features Maggie Smith and Judi Dench and focuses on a bunch of British retirees on a romp in India. And it’s great.

Here in the UK there are a number of television programmes featuring Boomers taking trips to discover various places in the world, and they’re wonderful.

This huge interest in the presence of us Boomers is not just due to us all retiring at the same time, it is financial too.

Now we’re not so keen on giving our money away to our kids and a lot of us are keeping our money for our own use in the long extra years that the benefits of medical advancement now offer us.

The Bank of America estimates that the Silver Economy, as they’re now calling us, is worth US$15 trillion in 2020, up from US$8 trillion in 2010.

The Boomer-Lit genre may describe us as the Coming Of Old Age generation, but we’re much more than that. Our lives are different now, we are freer, more adaptable, and where in the past older people seemed to have no prospects, we have huge opportunities open to us .

There’s no reason why we can’t still be active and progressive in this third stage of our lives. We can do amazing things, we can write, we can travel, even start a new business.

Our careers are behind us, the kids have left home and we have time.

So, now what?