THE ZOOMER

Imagine you’re a traveller from a distant land, and your host tells you about a group of Canadians who have unequalled financial resources, who own the most property, who buy the most products, who pay the most in taxes, who vote the most often in elections at all levels, and who are most active in charities and the funding and patronage of the arts; wouldn’t your natural assumption be that this group would be widely recognized, respected, acknowledged and appreciated? Now imagine that your informant tells you that this same community is, in fact, largely ignored and/or, when noticed at all, is either brushed off as irrelevant or accused of being a selfish and destructive force that will inevitably bankrupt the nation.

I’ve talked about this before: the disconnect between the popular mediadriven image of older people today as a drain on the economy and the actual positive economic and cultural influence we exert. But up to now I’ve always talked about it reactively, as a counter argument. In Chapter 18, for instance, I pointed out that contrary to our reputation as “the most selfish generation,” we actually supported arts and culture to a far greater extent than any other Canadian demographic. In Chapter 5, I noted that instead of stealing jobs from younger people, our growing aversion to retirement turns out to be significant for government coffers because of our continued tax payments (already disproportionately large) and to the labour market, which in many of our lifetimes is expected to experience a shortfall of a million jobs. In Chapter 30, I observed that not only would our “Grey Tsunami” not bankrupt the nation, we’d likely be the people who would bail the nation out because of our unprecedented financial resources. But the days of reaction are over. It’s time to be proactive. It’s time to focus on the numbers, which speak for themselves.

Our demarcated Zoomer demographic includes people 45 years old and up. In Canada, this group comprises 15.1 million people, or about 44 per cent of the total population, who happen to control a remarkable 78 per cent of the wealth and account for 57 per cent of all consumer spending.

How many industries and financial sectors does our gang drive? Looking at the numbers, Zoomers:

account for 45 per cent of all households with incomes of $100,000 or more and almost 50 per cent of household incomes of $200,000 or more.

buy more new cars (56 per cent) than any other age group, particularly cars costing more than $40,000, which 998,000 of us did on our most recent auto purchase.

take more trips, both inside and outside Canada, representing about half of all Canadians who took three or more vacations within Canada in the last 12 months.

spend more on travel than any other age group (1.7 million of us spent $4,000 or more on our most recent vacation outside Canada).

use credit cards for more purchases per month (65 per cent of all Canadians who spend between $1,000 and $2,500 per month; more than 50 per cent of Canadians who spend $5,000 plus per month).

save and invest far more than any other age group (more than 75 per cent of those with savings and securities valued between $100,000 and $1,000,000; and 80 per cent of those with more than $1,000,000).

buy more technological and electronic devices than any other age group. In fact, since 2010, people aged 55-64 – a group that’s coming to be known as the Alpha Boomers – have spent more on technology than any other 10-year age span.

make up 53 per cent of the 2.5 million Canadians who have offices in their homes.

comprise 65 per cent of the 7.5 million Canadians who own mutual funds; 60 per cent of Canadians who have RRSPs and Tax-Free Savings Accounts; and close to 70 per cent of all Canadians who have non-RRSP investments and own stocks and bonds either in or outside RRSPs.

spend more on furniture, television sets, audio equipment, home improvements and renovations, and men’s and women’s clothing than any other age group.

are neck and neck in spending on toys and games with the 35- to 49-year-old group (which includes four years of Zoomerhood).

contribute more to charities than any other demographic as well (62.8 per cent of the 13.2 million Canadians who reported donating to a Canadian charitable organization in the past 12 months were Zoomers).

Now, I’m not for a second forgetting that there is a significant segment of our demo who finds themselves in difficult financial straits, who struggle to make ends meet. But, on average, a Zoomer today is far more likely to be dispensing financial help to others