u/Comfortable-Move3004

I've been seeing a lot of discussions about how different younger generations are from Baby Boomers. Usually it turns into an argument about who had it harder or who had it better. But I think there's something people overlook.

Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s meant learning certain things without anyone actually teaching them to you.

Here's what I mean. If you wanted something, you waited for it. Sometimes months. If something broke, you tried fixing it before buying another one. If you were bored, your parents told you to go outside. And if you left the house, nobody expected to know exactly where you were every five minutes.

And here's something I find interesting. Baby Boomers went from rotary phones and typewriters to smartphones, online banking, and artificial intelligence, all within one lifetime. Yet somehow they're often portrayed as the generation that can't adapt to change.

But I think the biggest difference comes later in life. When you're young, you spend so much time trying to earn more, buy more, and impress people. By the time you're 65 or 70, you might realize that having more time, fewer obligations, and a few good people around you matters far more than most of the things you spent decades chasing.

Of course, not every Boomer had the same childhood, and I'm not suggesting everything was better back then. There were plenty of things that weren't. But I do think growing up in a world without instant everything gave people a different perspective.

I put together a video exploring seven of these things, with a bit of humor along the way, if anyone's interested:

7 Things Baby Boomers Know That Younger Generations Don't

For those who grew up in the 1950s, 60s, or even 70s, what's one thing you learned growing up that you think younger generations don't really experience anymore?

I've been looking into what happens to Baby Boomer homes as the generation gets older, and some of the numbers surprised me.

Boomers own more than a third of America's homes and hold around $17.3 trillion in home equity. But here's the interesting part: 68% of Boomer homeowners say they're likely to stay in their current home for the rest of their lives.

For years we've heard about a coming "Silver Tsunami," where millions of older homeowners would downsize and suddenly put their homes back on the market.

So far, that really hasn't happened.

And I can understand why. A lot of Boomers have no mortgage at all. Among those who still do, 53% have a rate below 4%. Then there's the question of where you actually go. Downsizing doesn't always save much money, especially when smaller homes are also in high demand.

Another number caught my attention. Boomer households with only one or two adults own about 28% of America's large homes with three or more bedrooms. Millennial families with children own only around 16%.

Eventually these homes have to change hands, but I don't think we're going to wake up one morning and see millions of them suddenly for sale.

It'll probably happen slowly. Some will go to the kids. Some will be sold. Some will become rentals. Some may be sold to pay for care later in life.

And even when these homes do hit the market, that doesn't automatically mean they'll become affordable starter homes. A 50-year-old four-bedroom house that needs a new roof, wiring, plumbing and $50,000 in renovations is a very different thing from a move-in-ready starter home.

I made a short documentary digging into all of this:
What Happens to Millions of Baby Boomer Homes?

I'm curious what people here actually plan to do.

If you're a Boomer homeowner, do you plan to stay in your house for life, eventually downsize, sell it, or leave it to your kids?

And if your parents left you their house, would you actually keep it?

I've been kind of obsessed with "Generation Jones" lately. That's the name for people born between 1954 and 1965. Everyone just lumps them in as baby boomers, but nobody really talks about why their childhood was so different from the boomers we all picture.

So I looked into what their actual childhood was like. And honestly, it explains a lot.

Picture this. You're 9 years old, it's 1971. Your mom used to be home when you got off the bus, but now the house is empty. You let yourself in with a key. You make your own snack. Nobody calls to check on you. You just figure out your afternoon completely alone, for years, because both your parents had to work to keep up.

Their whole formative period wasn't Woodstock and the Summer of Love. They were too young for that. It was Watergate, the oil crisis, mortgage rates at 18%, and watching the divorce rate double while their friends' families fell apart one after another. They watched a president resign in disgrace before they were even old enough to vote.

But here's the thing, they weren't traumatized by it. They were just kind of on their own. They figured it out. They learned to rely on themselves because the adults around them kept proving unreliable.

That's probably why they're so self-reliant now. That's why they don't fully trust institutions, but it's not really cynicism, it's more like they just calibrated to reality early. That's why they ended up being the bridge generation, the ones who built the tech economy while translating themselves from an analog world into a digital one in real time. And that's probably why they're one of the most overlooked generations in American history, too young to really be boomers, too old to be Gen X.

I made a documentary [2h 42min] breaking down the psychology behind all of this: The Complete Generation Jones Documentary - Born Between 1954 and 1965

I'm not saying they had it worse than anyone else. Just saying they had it different in ways that shaped an entire generation's mindset and never got acknowledged.

Anyone born 1954-1965 here? Does this track?