{"id":184084,"date":"2021-02-20T21:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T18:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/baby-boomers-face-financial-distress-and-age-discrimination\/"},"modified":"2021-02-20T21:05:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T18:05:00","slug":"baby-boomers-face-financial-distress-and-age-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/baby-boomers-face-financial-distress-and-age-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"#\n  Baby boomers face financial distress and age discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a419f543771d\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a419f543771d\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/baby-boomers-face-financial-distress-and-age-discrimination\/#This_generation_struggles_in_their_60s_as_their_working_lives_end\" >This generation struggles in their 60s as their working lives end<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/baby-boomers-face-financial-distress-and-age-discrimination\/#Howard_Gold\" >Howard Gold<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#<br \/>\n  Baby boomers face financial distress and age discrimination<br \/>\n<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"article__subhead\" itemprop=\"alternativeHeadline\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"This_generation_struggles_in_their_60s_as_their_working_lives_end\"><\/span>\n  This generation struggles in their 60s as their working lives end<br \/>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"column column--full article__content\">\n<div id=\"js-article__body\" class=\"article__body article-wrap at16-col16 barrons-article-wrap\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0000152874\">\n<div class=\"barrons-article-ad-wrapper\">\n<div data-track=\"barrons-article-ad-wrap\" class=\"barrons-article-ad sticky_item\">\n<div class=\"barrons-main-article-ad-target sticky_target body_ad\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>       They were born and raised during the Golden Age of the U.S. economy, which lasted from 1948 through 1973, when a high school diploma could be a ticket to a well-paying job, a vacation home and a college degree for the kids. It was the postwar American dream, and millions considered it their birthright.<\/p>\n<p> But now, after decades of economic upheaval, including three bear markets and two deep recessions in just the past 20 years, many baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, are struggling. The eldest boomers have mostly retired. But millions of boomers in their 60s still want or need to work, and are having a hard time finding jobs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n       COVID19 made the problem a lot worse. Nearly 900,000 Americans between the ages of 60 and 69 lost their jobs between December 2019 and December 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 5% decline in the number of employed people in that age group. Some 21.2 million Americans in their 60s are no longer in the labor force, the BLS reported.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Millions of Americans of all ages are suffering in COVID\u2019s aftermath. Already <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2020\/09\/28\/covid-buisnesses-shut-down-closed\/\" class=\"icon none\">100,000 small businesses have closed<\/a>. Thousands of cars <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/11\/15\/us\/dallas-texas-food-bank-coronavirus\/index.html\" class=\"icon none\">wait hours at food banks.<\/a> Nearly eight million Americans <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2020\/12\/16\/poverty-rising\/\" class=\"icon none\">fell into poverty<\/a> between June and November. Black and Latino people are <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2020\/05\/30\/865413079\/what-do-coronavirus-racial-disparities-look-like-state-by-state\" class=\"icon none\">bearing the brunt of it<\/a>, in COVID deaths and economic damage, while unemployment has hit women harder than men.<\/p>\n<p>But it also has made things worse for Americans in their 60s looking for one more act in their professional lives and whose prospects are as foggy as the legacy of their generation, which started out wanting to change the world and found, late in life, that the world had chastened them instead.<\/p>\n<p>Behind those numbers are real human beings with stories to tell. MarketWatch found four of them, all people in their 60s with long records of professional success who were now trying to find purpose or, at least, some income to help pay the bills. None of them ran a hedge fund or cashed out in an IPO. None attended Ivy League colleges but went to state universities or technical schools and lived solid middle class lives as loyal, productive employees, raising families on high five- to low six-figure incomes.<\/p>\n<p>Some had set aside a decent nest egg to tide them over while others had little cushion to face what may be involuntary retirement. According to a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nefe.org\/news\/story-ideas\/2017\/common-income-shocks-disrupt-retirement-savings.aspx\" class=\"icon none\">study commissioned by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE)<\/a>, 96% of Americans face four or more \u201cincome shocks\u201d during their lifetimes, which can reduce their retirement savings.<\/p>\n<p>We contacted them after they responded on LinkedIn to an October column, \u201cHalf of Americans over 55 may retire poor.\u201d They were in varied financial shape\u2014one had just emerged from personal bankruptcy, another had a well-funded retirement plan\u2013dealing with aging parents, illness, even the sudden death of a spouse. All had been laid off with no explanation, some before COVID 19 hit. Since then, they had sent out dozens of resumes yet got few job interviews and even fewer offers. All firmly believed they faced systemic age discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>Curtis Berndt, 65, felt that people eliminated him because of his age, \u201cYou go in, they look at you and they say \u2018too old\u2019 and you\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just find it discouraging. People don\u2019t want to give you a chance,\u201d said 61-year-old Karen Mater.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cx-membership-tile\"><\/div>\n<p>Here are their stories.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Curtis Berndt and Lu McCarty<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Curtis Berndt and Lu McCarty spent their careers at the nexus of skilled craftsmanship and technical engineering.<\/p>\n<p>Berndt began as a draftsman and then moved into product design, thanks to an associates\u2019 degree in mechanical engineering from what is now Purdue University Fort Wayne. For 43 years, all in Indiana, he did advanced quality control, made mock-ups of new products and streamlined manufacturing processes to reduce defects and improve efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>McCarty started out as a machinist working race cars and locomotives, then got a degree in mechanical engineering from a technical college in Sacramento, Calif. He worked as an engineer and product designer at companies like Hughes Space and Communications and Autodesk before eventually relocating to North Carolina and then to Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p>For both men, the ax fell early in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Berndt had been working for a decade as a senior mechanical designer.\u201d Everything was good and then all of a sudden \u2014 and I mean, really, all of a sudden\u2013there was a huge financial issue and they decided they were going to have to get rid of people,\u201d he said. \u201cI had just turned 65 and three days later they didn\u2019t need me anymore. It\u2019s impossible to prove, but they assured me that my age had nothing to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McCarty\u2019s layoff was equally abrupt, just before his probation period ended and he would have been hired on permanently: \u201cI got to my 59th day of probation and they told me I wasn\u2019t a good fit for the company,\u201d he said. \u201cI had glowing reports from my colleagues, and then I was handed a \u2018see you later\u2019 notice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McCarty speculated his layoff came in the wake of a review of health care insurance premiums by a new insurance broker the company hired. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to reduce costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an all too familiar story with a just as familiar human toll. \u201cI was treated so shoddily,\u201d said Berndt, the shock and hurt still in his voice months later. \u201cThey had people there that were younger than me, that had less experience than me, but then I was probably getting paid more, too.\u201d He also didn\u2019t think COVID19 had much to do with it, since the pandemic still wasn\u2019t on many people\u2019s radar screens.<\/p>\n<p>Berndt has <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lied for about 50 full-time job openings and gotten a handful of interviews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey say everything\u2019s good until the face-to-face interview, and then it\u2019s dead. From other people I\u2019ve talked to in my age group, that\u2019s pretty much the pattern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m searching all the time, every day,\u201d said McCarty. He\u2019s dropped his required salary to $45,000 a year, less than half of the $80,000-$120,000 he used to make. And he\u2019s resigned to not getting a full-time position with benefits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think you have to market yourself as a consultant contractor,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise, you\u2019re not going to make any money at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s worried his skills will atrophy if he doesn\u2019t find work soon. \u201cIn today\u2019s job market, if you lose your edge, you\u2019re screwed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>McCarty is drawing unemployment benefits and qualifies for Medicare in September. His four children are grown and his domestic partner has a job. But he doesn\u2019t have much saved in his bank account, or in his IRA, from which he has made a partial withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt least I have the motivation knowing that I don\u2019t have the cash to fall back on,\u201d he said, \u201cSo, when I\u2019m 68 or 70, I don\u2019t want to be sitting with a can and a sleeping bag on a corner somewhere, begging for food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Berndt\u2019s children also are grown and his wife works full time. He qualifies for Medicare and plans to take <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social<\/a> Security when he reaches full retirement age, just past 66. But though he\u2019s in decent financial shape, he said, \u201cI think I still have a lot to contribute,\u201d and is even considering a career change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve decided I\u2019m going to pursue something other than engineering,\u201d he said in a message. \u201c45 years is enough. I just haven\u2019t figured out what that will be yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Karen Mater<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Karen Mater was a young geologist working on oil wells in southern Indiana, a male rig worker said to her one day, \u201cI don\u2019t think women belong in oil fields. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m the wrong person to answer, because here I am.\u2019\u201d It was the kind of super polite comeback you\u2019d expect from a mother of three from the Great Lakes State. Yet Mater\u2019s quiet determination made her a pioneer in an overwhelmingly male-dominated field.<\/p>\n<p>But the strain on her young family of being away for two or three weeks at a time caused her to change careers. Using the computer knowledge she\u2019d acquired as a geologist, she took a job at nearby Central Michigan University, where she had earned her master\u2019s degree, working in the department that oversaw charter schools, which were then launching in Michigan and across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-three years later, in August, the university let her and others go. \u201cThey decided they had to really slim down and for whatever reason, they picked my job to eliminate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, she\u2019s applied to \u201cat least 45\u201d jobs, but with no luck. \u201cI think this online hiring has made it worse,\u201d she said. \u201cThe human factor has totally gone out of it. You can\u2019t fight the computer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, Mater put aside 13% of her salary each year in her retirement plan and the university made generous matching contributions. Her three daughters are grown (one is in divinity school) and her biggest financial challenge is a jump in medical insurance premiums to over $600 a month. This year, she\u2019s eligible to get Social Security survivors\u2019 benefits.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because in June 2019, Wayne, her husband of 32 years, was suddenly rushed to the emergency room, where doctors diagnosed him with kidney cancer. Later, specialists said they couldn\u2019t give him chemotherapy, dialysis or even a biopsy. \u201cI knew 14 hours before he died that he wasn\u2019t going to survive,\u201d she said. \u201cHis last week of life was his first week of retirement.\u201d He was 67. Almost a year later to the day, her father died suddenly of a blood clot that <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a>ed to his heart.<\/p>\n<p>Such devastating losses make a job search look unimportant. \u201cEmotionally right now I think I\u2019m OK. But some days I get real down and out,\u201d she said. She is working part time at her church for a lot less pay, but it keeps her busy and she finds comfort in her faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI go to church and I say, well, it\u2019s in God\u2019s hands. Whatever He wants He\u2019ll do and I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>William Budd<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>William Budd, 67, is one of the few people who served in both the U.S. Army and Air Force. He put in 3 \u00bd years in the Air Force right after high school, then did a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, followed by 17 years in the Army, mostly in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>When he retired after 20 years of service, he pursued his dream of being an accountant, getting his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree in accounting from the University of North Texas when he already had three teenage daughters.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly two decades of financial analysts\u2019 positions followed at companies that ranged from defense contractors Raytheon and Honeywell to restaurant chain Panera Bread, largely in Arizona. But in early 2017 he found himself, at 64, out of a job. He\u2019s been struggling to find full-time work ever since.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have had interviews on site, telephone, or internet with 176 different companies in the Phoenix metropolitan area,\u201d he told me, but until recently got no full-time offers. He\u2019s filled the gap with substitute teaching, volunteering at his church and a job as a courier that paid half as much as his previous jobs did.<\/p>\n<p>He has struggled financially, too. He and his wife, who works in a bank, sold their home and now live with his mother and two of their four children. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of like the Waltons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Years of big expenses and salaries that couldn\u2019t quite cover them took their toll. \u201cNot having a paycheck for 2\u00bd years, I actually had to do a chapter 7 bankruptcy. I probably mismanaged my money a bit,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cSometimes the more money you get, the more money you spend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He still has little personal or retirement savings, though he\u2019s been getting a military pension since he left the service and started taking Social Security benefits at 64.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks after I interviewed him, Budd messaged me to tell me he got a full-time temporary job, which he hopes will become a permanent one, as an accounting specialist with the state of Arizona. At least there\u2019s good <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> for somebody at a time where there hasn\u2019t been much for anyone.<\/p>\n<p>He started late in December and, he wrote, \u201cI had to take a 60% cut in pay\u201d from his last full-time job. \u201cMy passion for the work I do is sufficient payback,\u201d he wrote. \u201dIt certainly made my Christmas wish come true!\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"byline article__byline\">\n<p>      <span>By<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author  hasMenu\" data-scrim='{\"type\":\"author\",\"header\":\"Howard Gold\",\"subhead\":\"The Wall Street Journal\",\"list\":[]}' itemscope itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<h4 itemprop=\"name\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Howard_Gold\"><\/span>Howard Gold<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/news\/story.asp?guid=%7B21005575-02D4-D4B5-4572-D2552AC9E65A%7D&#038;siteid=rss&#038;rss=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;# Baby boomers face financial distress and age discrimination &#8221; This generation struggles in their 60s as their working lives end They were born and raised during the Golden Age of the U.S. economy, which lasted from 1948 through 1973, when a high school diploma could be a ticket to a well-paying job, a vacation&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}