Some who correspond with me tend to focus on America's Social Security program, its costs and its benefits. I was amused by one gentleman who started his email with "How old are you?" At the age of 64, he went on to lecture me that after all he had paid to social security, he deserved all he could get in return. Apparently, he assumed I am substantially younger than he is. Critical though he was, I thanked him for his email, there is no harm in being polite, but noted that I also was 64. I am afraid he is going to have to make a little room for me too, up there on his pedestal. And should any of you wonder, I do not receive nor have I applied for social security benefits. I will not hesitate to do so when I truly need them, but I hope that day is a long way off.

I may comment on social security from time to time, but it is not my focus. Dealing with the Retirement Bubble is not just a matter of legislation, although that plays a role. It is more a matter of "mind set", of expectations, of how we see ourselves and our futures. Another blog somewhere else is welcome to focus on legislation, but I will stick to my focus.

However, the email critic mentioned above does allow me the opportunity to mention something I rarely see in discussions on retirement. I frequently read that we are creating a generation gap where the "young and working" will grow angry with the "old and retired" who demand ever more financial support. Perhaps, but I believe the group that will be most openly critical will be the "old and working" like myself. We are likely to speak far more critically in response to our age peers who use their age as an excuse for demanding more from the rest of us.

Whatever your age, if you clearly are unable to work to help support yourself, I and most people are willing to help. Even if you are able to work, but choose not to, that's your business and I hope you have saved enough to do it successfully. I work with unemployed retirees, as well as the employed, all the time and have for years. I like these folks every bit as much as I do those who are still working. Although I may worry about them and the security of their future, they are adults and are welcome to make their own decisions.

But for those who run short of money in retirement and who are capable of earning money to supplement their income had best make every effort to do so before they tell the rest of us, very much including their age peers, that we must further supplement their incomes from ours simply because they have "paid their dues" and deserve it on the basis of their age alone. They will discover a "gap", but it won't just be a generation gap.

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