Kelly McParland: Lament of the baby boomers - Full Comment

So Boomers -- at least those few who thought beyond the next Visa bill -- were forced to face the necessity of saving for their old age. It went against all their instincts, which cry out “consume! consume! consume!”, but the investing business made it all sound safe and easy, even fun. Remember Freedom 55, the advertising campaign that suggested we could all retire rich, like ... tomorrow? It worked because it fed the fantasy we all lived by, i.e. that just a few more years and we can escape to a life of cocktails and golf.
All you had to do, according to the investment gurus, was set up an RRSP, siphon off regular contributions, and let the magic of the market do the rest. Yes there were risks, but that’s why you paid a fee to the advisors, so they could apply their expertise to safeguarding your capital. They would “diversify.” They would tap into foreign markets, because Canada’s was too small to offer security. They would come up with new products that offered safety and regular returns. Income Trusts! Yeah, that was a good one.
Technology stocks! Commodities! GICs, which guarantee a return, were bad, because the profit was small. You had to take a risk to make the money you’d need in retirement (which, we were told, had to be approximately 100% of our pre-retirement income if we wanted to foot our share of the drinks at Happy Hour) Kelly McParland: Lament of the baby boomers - Full Comment

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