Summarizes the results of a research on the economic status of the baby boomers and compares their financial prospects with their parents' generation. Presents projections of the income and consumption of the baby boomers at the age of 65.

Over the past 15 years, the retirement prospects of the baby-boom generation (people born from 1946 to 1964) have become a source of public concern. Some experts contend that low saving by boomers could limit economic growth in the U.S. & compound the financial pressures that face gov't. programs such as Social Security & Medicare. This CBO study updates & expands on a 1993 CBO report on the retirement preparedness of boomers. It places the baby-boom retirement issues in historical & policy context, describes the methodologies used to analyze that issue, reviews numerous studies of retirement preparedness that have been published since 1993, & draws general conclusions from their findings. Graphs.

This paper examines the financial prospects of the baby boomers in their elderly years. The paper primarily attempts to draw together and summarize results found by other researchers, but a few new estimates are presented. The consensus of the research appears to be the following. Up to this point, the baby boom generation as a whole has a higher economic status than their parents' generation did at the same ages, but this does not hold for some subgroups. When it becomes elderly, the baby boom generation as a whole probably will have a higher economic status than their parents' generation has and will have at those ages, but, again, this may not hold for some subgroups. It is uncertain whether the baby boom generation as a whole will have enough resources in retirement to maintain their preretirement standard of living without increasing their saving or retiring later, but some subgroups will be able to maintain their living standard without changing their behavior.

This book offers readers an invaluable study of Boomers as they march into retirement.