Generation Differences

Jonathan Chevreau, of the Financial Post, writes in his blog The Wealthy Boomer, 70% of young Canadians aged 25 to 34 have begun a savings plan.
link to Jonathan's blog
Jonathan suggests that the Generation X and Generation Y's put the Boomers to shame on retirement savings. Yet his point close to the end of his blog is to reflect on what are the savings for?
Short term or long term goals. Although evidence and my personal experience shows that this group of x and y's have more balance with their work and life goals than the boomers have.
Following up on this topic, in today's London Free Press, P.J. Hartson writes about Boomers must plan retirement.
So this leads me to wonder what is the vision boomers' have for retirement. Is it when we are pink or blue haired and living in a retirement home, is it when we make a career transition from the corporate world to a life passion, or is it when we downsize our life possessions and wants to a more "civilized lifestyle"?
Great conversation for a hot summer night.

Sandwich Generation

I just had a chance to read the article by P.J. Hartson in the London Free Press Business Section about "The Perils of caring too much". The link is http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/2007/07/12/4333197-sun.html
What strikes me in reading this is how my generation is very much the caregivers of the world.
We look after our children, we look after our parents if they are still living, we look after our social responsibilities, we look after our business obligations and when there is a new cause that needs our involvement because we "care" we do that too!

Take some time to care for yourself.
Gayle

Executors! Get Involved Early.

When the dovetail organizer was first developed, it was as a result of my experience mediating family estates and finding so many times, the conflicts came from lack of information or the same information shared by all parties. Agreeing to become executor of a will has many responsibilities and so many of us see this as a huge honour. Unfortunately, most people have no idea what's really involved until something happens.

Executor Task Full of Perils written by Linda Leatherdale, a business editor at the Toronto Sun, brings forth details of a BMO study that may surprise you. There are many misconceptions of what executor responsibilities are and how best to manage them.

When you agree to the executor role, you should inform yourself what the exact responsibilities are so that you are not left wondering what to do, how to do it and where to locate all of the missing pieces of information you need to do your job. Spending time in advance with the person who has asked you to be their executor will eliminate or mitigate a lot of the stress relating to unresolved issues and lack of information. Educate yourself so that the learning curve is a little less steep. We get trained to drive a car and yet who trains us to be an executor?

Knowledge is power, information is key and access is critical.

Sincerely,
GWM