The baby boomers are retiring, and some of them, who placed all of their eggs in one basket, are retiring hurt.

The UK financial turn-down has altered the paths of most people’s lives in the country, but probably none more so, than baby boomers. This significant group of people, born in the five years after World War Two ended drove the UK economy forward in the seventies, eighties and nineties to reach the highest levels of prosperity and stability the Great Britain has ever known.

Encouraged by Margaret Thatcher, people were encouraged to acquire their own properties, mostly for a nest egg when retirement time came around, and with hopefully a little left over to provide for the children and grandchildren when the time came to depart this astral plane.

Unfortunately the property boom of the first decade of the 21st century shattered their plans. Many of them were hoping to downgrade a little, and while they could have earned a fabulous profit on the property they had bought in the seventies or eighties, they found it impossible to buy smaller properties at a representative value, because they were being snapped up by younger couples who would pay any price to get their feet on the bottom rung of the property ladder.

And when the bubble finally burst, many of them found them living in properties that were far too big for their needs, with all the attendant costs, and the nest egg that they had hoped to enjoy shrinking in value by an average of around £10,000 a year. Overall estimates are that properties owned by baby boomers have fallen in value by almost £30 billion in the last twelve months.

Surveys have shown the population sector that has placed too much reliance on their property asset to fund their retirement come from the East Midlands. However those hailing from the South and particularly London have spread their retirement portfolio.

Even more worrying is the fact that out or the entire UK population above the age of 25, have begun to look into alternative pension arrangements or investment opportunities.

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Tags: baby boomers, British Economy, Credit Crunch, East Midlands, Economics, Economy, Financial News, Margaret Thatcher, Money, Mortgage, Mortgages, property, Recession, UK Recession, World War Two