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Interesting fact. I was 33 when I had my son and was considered at the time a “geriatric pregnancy”. Which, would’ve stung except, a second interesting fact, my hair started going grey when I was 18 (hereditary thing apparently) so I never associated grey hair with being “old” and, the same happened with “geriatric” being applied to a 33-year-old – I just shrugged it off as a term that meant nothing personal to me.

It was a little trickier to do then when, as the sensible and mature 40-year-old that I now am, I discovered I am what is now known as a “geriatric millennial”. This is one soooo age-specific, it’s hard not to feel the sting, at least a little bit.

Apparently us geriatric millennials (ouch, still):

• Used to have a hotmail email address (I actually still do)
• Have at least one friend whose first dance at their wedding was a Robbie Williams song
• Still use outdated emojis (the problem with being geriatric is that I don’t know which ones are outdated)
• Are one of the people who say “I’m glad I didn’t grow up online” (it’s true – I am!)

However, personal attacks aside, I’ve been reflecting a bit on generations and demographics and their impacts following a super interesting talk at a Meeting of Minds event I attended recently. In it, Dr Eliza Filby talked about the many variables across the different demographics, from boomers to zoomers and how the changes in society, as well as the family structure, have impacted their approach to their work lives and, importantly for Eclipse, how advice needs to change to match this shift.

An example is that ‘boomers’ typically had a career for life; sometimes a single job for life, but even if there were a couple of employees, there was consistency in the role. Gen Z (or Zoomers) are expected to have an average of 15 jobs and 5 careers over their lives 🤯 (< is that an outdated emoji??) and do not believe in the concept of a single income. It just makes no sense to them. Side hustles and making money online are a default for many of them.

In the above paragraph alone, if we look at it through the lens of advising on getting ready for retirement, we can see how a single approach simply won’t work across all people and would do at least one segment a massive disservice. We millennials are also in a crunch phase; conscious that we’re never going to have the security of the bygone DB schemes of our ancestors; many feel extremely disillusioned at the debt we were saddled with for University and the lack of perceived value we got in return; juggling raising kids while starting to support more elderly parents; feeling the financial strain from all angles; and so just not able (mentally or financially) to really think about prepping for some version of retirement. And yet are at the most crucial age to be doing just that.

Another interesting term I learned is that we millennials had what is now considered “stunted adulthood”. Another compliment to be swimming in. But the societal structure and pressures, coupled with economic impacts such as the 08 crisis have very specifically shaped the way we approach life (being far later than previous generations to do things like move out, get married and have kids). All of this pushes the concept of retirement much further into the distance than it did for the generation who hit those milestones in their early 20s.

So, a lot of food for thought there. Clearly, it’s not a case of having vastly different advice propositions for every generation; we don’t recommend your PROD segmentation being based on whether or not they are considered “geriatric” (no, I’m not over it yet). However, being mindful of where you personally sit in this demographic and therefore your own interpretation of life stages, including retirement, and an awareness that it could vary massively from those you are advising could be a really interesting step and also help deepen your engagement with them.

A few quick links and then it’s half term and I am disappearing for a week (to lick my aged wounds). We’ve had a phenomenal response to our launch of Dextera, and there is so much more to come on it. We’ve built out a page on it, including a demo and the chance to book in for some live sessions which you can see below. Continuing on the education theme is an article from Hayley across at The Verve Foundation about how we can take financial education forward. And my final link is, randomly a book I read and enjoyed recently, as I’m thinking about which books to get next for my break!

Instead of a wine recommendation, I’m going to tell you a new word I learned: cenosilicaphobia – the fear of having an empty glass when drinking 🤷🏼‍♀️👵🏼

Have a wonderful weekend / half term all,

Let’s: talk about Dex baby.

Ponder: how we can approach financial education differently.

Read: a very humorous and wry version of the story of Medusa.