{"id":2706,"date":"2025-06-21T15:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T15:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2706\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T15:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T15:35:09","slug":"3-money-habits-boomers-think-are-normal-but-are-keeping-them-broke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2706\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Money Habits Boomers Think Are Normal but Are Keeping Them Broke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baby boomers might be the generation<\/a> that others love to hate \u2014 or at least resent \u2014 but people forget that boomers came of age during tumultuous times<\/a> of their own. Going from flower children to embracing \u201980s excess before finding themselves befuddled by grunge and all the genuinely bizarre slang of the next generations (\u201cbae\u201d or \u201cskibidi\u201d just don\u2019t hit the way \u201cgroovy\u201d did) wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

Find Out: 6 Cash-Flow Mistakes Boomers Are Making With Their Retirement Savings<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Learn More: These Cars May Seem Expensive, but They Rarely Need Repairs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

With all of those changes, they\u2019ve had to make strategic money moves to keep up with the times and prepare for their golden years. However, that\u2019s not to say those moves have been flawless. Baby boomers have made their own share of mistakes and adopted some bad habits along the way \u2014 and those habits are costing them. Here are three financial habits that are making boomers go broke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Becoming Too Set in Their Ways<\/p>\n

When National Debt Relief examined<\/a> the different money mindsets among generations, they found that baby boomers were the least likely to believe they make poor money decisions. Sure, other generations must snark about their stubbornness, but there are real pitfalls to thinking there\u2019s no room to evolve in your savings strategy.<\/p>\n

Being reluctant to change up your approach means missing out on opportunities, like moving money from a traditional checking or savings account to a high-yield savings account, or working with a trusted professional to optimize your investing strategy. Curiously, a significant segment of boomers \u2014 roughly 30% of those surveyed \u2014 told National Debt Relief that they felt they needed more information about building better financial habits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the absence of that information, baby boomers might be more likely to stick with what they know, even if that means over-relying on credit cards, skipping a budget entirely, or avoiding financial products like online banking tools that could help grow their wealth.<\/p>\n

Be Aware: I\u2019m a Retired Boomer: 3 Things I Wish I Had Done Differently To Better Prepare For Retirement Longevity<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Trying To Help Adult Children<\/p>\n

For all the flack boomers get about being a selfish generation, many are incredibly generous to their adult children and even their grandchildren \u2014 sometimes to their own detriment. Reporting from Savings.com shows<\/a> that half of parents with adult children provide some sort of financial support to their kids. Among those, 83% contribute to their adult children\u2019s groceries, 65% to cell phone bills, and 46% to vacations.<\/p>\n

Worse, subsidizing their children\u2019s \u201cgroovy lifestyles\u201d (as Hannah Horvath\u2019s mother famously said on the show \u201cGirls,\u201d during the scene where Hannah\u2019s parents cut her off to fund their own retirement) has impacted boomers\u2019 own financial security. Savings.com also found that nearly 50% of parents who support their adult children report a negative impact on their finances.<\/p>\n

Hannah\u2019s mom may have been on the right track, considering working parents who help their grown kids contribute more than twice as much to those children than they do their own retirement savings<\/a>.\u00a0As painful as it may be, setting financial boundaries with their adult kids could be one of the most loving \u2014 and fiscally responsible \u2014 things boomers can do.<\/p>\n

Believing Conventional Retirement Accounts Are Enough<\/p>\n

Boomers came of age in a time when Social Security, a 401(k), or a pension plan could promise a comfortable retirement. But today, between a volatile stock market, uncertainty around the future of Social Security, and pensions feeling like an endangered species, these once-reliable vehicles now need to be complemented by other retirement and savings tools, like Roth IRAs or brokerage accounts.<\/p>\n

Boomers would also do well to ensure they have robust emergency funds, ideally parked in high-yield savings accounts<\/a>. They should also consider additional protections like health savings accounts and long-term care insurance to cover expenses that Medicare won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

While many boomers know that life insurance can support loved ones after they\u2019re gone, they might not be aware that certain permanent life insurance policies offer cash value components that could potentially be used to support retirement. Annuities, too, can be a powerful tool to create a steady income stream in retirement.<\/p>\n

Read Next: 6 Hybrid Vehicles To Stay Away From in Retirement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/p>\n

Baby boomers get a hard rap sometimes. But that doesn\u2019t mean that they haven\u2019t picked up a few bad money habits, like staying set in their ways, supporting adult kids to their own detriment, and not embracing the full range of financial products that can make a difference in their long-term security.\u00a0Addressing these habits can help boomers course-correct and build a more secure financial future.<\/p>\n

More From GOBankingRates<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com<\/a>: 3 Money Habits Boomers Think Are Normal but Are Keeping Them Broke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baby boomers might be the generation that others love to hate \u2014 or at least resent \u2014 but…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3637,658,64,3635,3634,255,696,3636,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-2706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-adult-children","9":"tag-baby-boomers","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-financial-habits","12":"tag-national-debt-relief","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-retirement-savings","15":"tag-savings-strategy","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114722093428576712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}