Boomers: One Generation, Two Different Animals
Posted On September 20, 2017
They say you can never stop learning. If you’re a financial adviser, you should strive to prove that theory. One of the important things we need to keep re-learning is how different generations prefer to handle their money — or even different subsets within the same generation. Many advisers, for instance, may think they know all there is to know about Baby Boomer clients. Many advisers are Baby Boomers themselves. But there are important differences to consider even within the Baby Boomer generation. While many leading boomers, born from 1946 to ’55, are already retired, trailing boomers who were born… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Financial Services, Wealth
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … Generation X?
Posted On August 14, 2017
Dust off that cape, Generation X. No, not that one. The other one. The one with the big S on it. You’re being called upon to save the country. From millennials. In a recent piece for the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Hennessey ticked off all the usual criticisms of the “participation trophy generation” – entitled, tech-dependent, impatient, undisciplined, obsessed with political correctness. He then closes by essentially saying the last line of defense against a country steeped in these millennial vices is Generation X. No pressure, my fellow slackers. The world needs a hero, but you’ll… Read More
Categories: Generation X, Generations, Workplace
Telecommuting? Maybe teleco-NO!
Posted On August 4, 2017
Technology and millennial demands for flexibility have conspired to convince many companies to allow their employees to not bother coming into the office. With the internet, remote messaging systems and cloud technology, there doesn’t seem to be much reason in many industries for employees to be corralled under the same roof. While the advantages of working from home are obvious – who wouldn’t want to work in their PJs? – I cited a study in a blog several months ago showing that many millennials are actually now seeing the benefits of a more traditional office setting – particularly the interpersonal… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace
Next on millennials’ hit list: Beer?
Posted On August 1, 2017
You may have read that millennials may be the death of chain restaurants. Or that their news consumption habits have made newspapers endangered species. What are millennials killing next? Beer, apparently. CNBC reported recently that millennials are drinking more wine and spirits and less beer. Goldman Sachs recently downgraded Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams, and Constellation Brands, which brews Corona and Modelo, amid reports of sluggish sales. Business Insider, which has made a cottage industry of identifying industries that millennials are supposedly destroying, aggregated CNBC’s report with the headline: “Millennials are killing the beer industry.” Nielsen panel data… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Generation Y / Millennials
Pop goes the workplace: The rise of flash organizations
Posted On July 28, 2017
You know all about startups. But have you heard about pop-ups? In an economy where layoffs and job insecurity are becoming the norm and employers are trying to do more with less, pop-up employment or “flash organizations” may be an emerging trend in certain industries. Flash organizations are loosely knit teams of freelancers, often who have not even met each other, assembled to work on a single, complex project and disbanded when the job is done. Citing a pair of Stanford University professors who have studied the phenomenon – and who coined the term “flash organizations” — the New York… Read More
Categories: Workplace
That Girl Can Code!
Posted On July 24, 2017
Women have made a lot of gains in the workplace, and many of those gains have been accomplished or expanded upon by millennials. Computing and the tech industry remain largely male-dominated fields, however. According to National Center for Women and Information Technology, only 26 percent of computing jobs in the 2016 U.S. workforce were held by women – this despite the fact that women filled 57 percent of all professional occupations in the U.S. Widen the scope to the tech industry as a whole, and the number isn’t much better – only 30 percent, according to CNET’s Roger Cheng. And… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Women, Work, Workplace
Do millennials have us motoring to a sharing economy?
Posted On July 12, 2017
How important is your car? Most of us would say, “very.” We are a nation that loves the freedom of private automobiles. It may surprise you, then, to hear that 30 percent of millennials who responded in a Goldman Sachs survey had no plans to buy a car. Another 25 percent said that while a car was important, buying one was not a priority. This particular section of the survey appears to have focused on Goldman Sachs interns, so we can assume many of them were in New York, where having a car is not a priority for many, many… Read More
Categories: Automotive, Generation Y / Millennials, Product Design
Preparing millennials for the grind: Not everyone gets a trophy in college football, or the working world
Posted On July 11, 2017
College football coaches find inspiration and motivational tips in a variety of places, from generals to CEOs to children battling cancer. It doesn’t matter where the lesson comes from, only that it is powerful enough to have an effect on a group of 18- to 23-year-old men who spend most of their time in the fall running into each other. One coach, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, found inspiration from a motivational speaker and marketing consultant named Simon Sinek. But this inspiration wasn’t for his team, it was for himself and his fellow coaches. According to FootballScoop.com’s Doug Samuels, Dantonio recently… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Workplace
Leading Multi-Generational Teams
Posted On July 6, 2017
If I mention the term “Generation X,” what’s the first word that pops in your mind? Is it “slackers?” When you think of millennials, do you automatically think of someone who has a feeling of entitlement, who is likely to leave a job at the drop of a hat if it doesn’t match their preconceived ideal? While both of these impressions are prevalent and pervasive, neither is particularly accurate. Research shows, however, that no generation more than Gen-X is willing to take their own future into their hands and “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” if you will, without relying… Read More
Categories: Work, Workplace
Micro-Generation? “Xennials?”
Posted On July 3, 2017
Ever felt like you didn’t fit within your generation? Or maybe that you fit in parts of more than one? If you were born between 1977 and 1983, an Australian sociology professor believes you’re right. Dan Woodman, an associate sociology professor at the University of Melbourne, believes people born during that time frame don’t fit neatly into either Generation X or millennials. They are instead, he says, a micro-generation all their own – one that he calls Xennials. Woodman, who was born in 1980 and is part of this micro-generation, described it to Australian lifestyle site MamaMia.com as a mix… Read More
Categories: Generation X, Generation Y / Millennials, Generations