Media Consumption: Baby Boomers are the biggest consumers of traditional media like television, radio, magazines, and newspaper. Despite being so traditional, 91% of baby boomers have a Facebook account. This generation has begun to adopt more technology in order to stay in touch with family members and reconnect with old friends.
Banking Habits: Boomers prefer to go into a branch to perform transactions. This generational cohort still prefers to use cash, especially for purchases under $5.
Shaping Events: Post-WWII optimism, the cold war, and the hippie movement.
What’s next on their financial horizon: This generation is experiencing the highest growth in student loan debt. While this might seem counterintuitive, it can be explained by the fact that this generation has the most wealth and is looking to help their children with their student debt. They have a belief that you should take care of your children enough to set them on the right course and don’t plan on leaving any inheritance. With more Americans outliving their retirement fund, declining pensions, and social security in jeopardy, ensuring you can successfully fund retirement is a major concern for Boomers.
Generation X
GEN X
Gen X Birth Years: 1965 to 1979/80
Current Age: 45 to 60
Generation Size: 65 million
Other Nicknames: ”Latchkey” generation, MTV generation
Media Consumption: Gen X still reads newspapers, magazines, listens to the radio, and watches TV (about 165 hours’ worth of TV a month). However, they are also digitally savvy and spend roughly 7 hours a week on Facebook (the highest of any generational cohort).
Banking Habits: Since they are digitally savvy, Gen X will do some research and financial management online, but still prefer to do transactions in person. They believe banking is a person-to-person business and demonstrate brand loyalty.
Shaping Events: End of the cold war, the rise of personal computing, and feeling lost between the two huge generations.
What’s next on Gen X’s financial horizon: Gen X is trying to raise a family, pay off student debt, and take care of aging parents. These demands put a high strain on their resources. The average Gen Xer carries $142,000 in debt, though most of this is in their mortgage. They are looking to reduce their debt while building a stable saving plan for the future.
Millennials (Gen Y)
MILLENNIALS
Millennial Birth Years: 1980 to 1994/6
Current Age: 29 to 44
Generation Size: 74 million
Other Nicknames: Gen Y, Gen Me, Gen We, Echo Boomers
Media Consumption: Most Millennials still watch TV but Netflix edges out traditional cable as the preferred provider. Cord-cutting in favor of streaming services is the popular choice. This generation is extremely comfortable with mobile devices, but 36% would choose to use a laptop to make larger online purchases of $150 or more. They typically have multiple social media accounts.
Banking Habits: Millennials have less brand loyalty than previous generations. They prefer to shop products and features first, and have little patience for inefficient or poor service. Because of this, Millennials place their trust in brands with superior product history such as Apple and Google. They seek digital tools to help manage their debt and see their banks as transactional as opposed to relational.
Shaping Events: The Great Recession, the technological explosion of the internet and social media, and 9/11
What’s next on their financial horizon: Millennials are powering the workforce, but with huge amounts of student debt. This is delaying major purchases like weddings and homes. Because of this financial instability, Millennials choose access over ownership, which can be seen through their preference for on-demand services. They want partners that will help guide them to their big purchases.
Gen Z
GEN Z
Gen Z Birth Years: 1997 to 2012
Currently Aged: 13 to 28
Generation Size: 69 million
Other Nicknames: iGeneration, Post-millennials, Homeland Generation
Media Consumption: The average Gen Zer received their first mobile phone between 10 and 13 years old. Many of them grew up playing with their parents’ mobile phones or tablets. They have grown up in a hyper-connected world and the smartphone is their preferred method of communication, spending around 4 hours a day on their mobile device.
Banking Habits: This generation has seen the struggle of Millennials and has adopted a more fiscally conservative approach. They want to avoid debt and appreciate accounts or services that aid in that endeavor. Debit cards top their priority list, followed by mobile banking.
Shaping Events: Smartphones, social media, never knowing a country not at war, and seeing the financial struggles of their parents (Gen X).
What’s next on Gen Z’s financial horizon: Learning about personal finance. They have a strong appetite for financial education and are opening savings accounts at younger ages than prior generations.
By Geo DellA young couple making their way through life decides to leave it all behind and rent an old camper van and live on a small, wooded lot just to get away from it all. After all, the world was so crazy, loose, tight, nuts, who could figure any of it out? The try vlogging their experience to help support their antiestablishment lifestyle. It goes better than expected, and brings in more than thought it would in revenue. The money brings its own problems, but also solutions too and they decide to expand their horizons even more. And then things spiral slowly out of control until one of them comes up missing… #Crime #Thriller #Drama #Readers #Mystery #Amazon #KU #Kindle
Earth’s Survivors box set contains the entire Earth’s Survivors series in one volume. A meteorite that was supposed to miss earth hits and begins a series of events that destroy society… #Dystopian #ApocalypticFiction #Horror #ZombieFiction #Series
This is a custom release of four of the most popular projects in one publication. All projects have been updated and include full color images in the Kindle Versions and Black and White in the Paperback versions. #WoodWorking #Luthier #GuitarBuilds #CustomGuitarBuilding #Amazon
The Guitar Works Big Book contains sections on finish work, Acoustic builds, Electric Builds, Neck work and much more… #WoodWorking #Luthier #GuitarBuilds #CustomGuitarBuilding #Amazon
by W Sweet (Author) #Zombie #Horror #Kindle #Amazon
America the Dead Survivor Stories Five contains books nine and ten of the series. Both of these books were unreleased. The Fold Book Two: Rodney stood slowly from Mamma’s grave where he had been kneeling, and turned to the people behind him. Jessie stepped out and the small crowd fell silent. “It’s time,” she said simply, “it’s time to leave.” She turned back to the others and they climbed inside her SUV. A few moments later she backed around, came back up onto the rutted dirt road and started slowly out of the settlement. Most of the inhabitants had left soon after Mamma had died. They had given no reasons, and Rodney had asked for none. Of the more than one thousand people that had been there, there were less than forty now, gathered around them in a circle. The small crowd moved away and quickly gathered what they wished to take with them, which was not a great deal. Less than twenty minutes later a worn caravan of patched and rusty vehicles pulled out of the park at Lake Union, and trekked slowly out of Seattle following Jessie Stone. As they drove east, other encampments joined them, and when they were just beyond the city limits, the small caravan that had started with no more than fifteen vehicles had grown to more than thirty.
Bluechip: It was a beautiful day to be alone. He wondered about the kid, Jingo. What had happened to him? The theory was that the girl, Nikki Moore, had killed him and dumped his body out in one of the swamps. It was possible, he supposed. The money had never turned up, that was all Sammy knew for sure. Or if it had someone else had taken it and knew how to keep their mouth shut. Either way, he wouldn’t be getting his hands on it. It was gone. He looked out over the water. A beautiful early spring day. A good day to call it quits. He rolled forward, daring himself. The edge of the dock just a few inches away. It would be so easy. He took a deep breath, as deep as he was able to, laughed and then released it: Then before he could change his mind he wheeled himself off the end of the dock. The bubbles died away after the first few minutes. Somewhere across the lake a loon cried out.
by W Sweet (Author) #Zombie #Horror #Kindle #Amazon
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 1
America the Dead contains books seven and eight of the series. While seven was released, eight was not and can only be purchased in this volume as there are no plans to release it as a single book. The Zombie Plagues: Donita walked down Eighth Avenue towards Columbus Circle. Behind her a silent army followed, numbering in the thousands. From the circle they would take the park. There were thousands of the living camped out in the park. She could smell them on the air that flowed past her face as she walked. They had believed they were safe in their numbers, and for a time that had been true, but no more… The Fold Book One: Doctor Jessie Stone moved through the clinic quickly, her eyes falling on the many faces: Mothers, children, all waiting. She passed the desk, nodded at Vera who held her eyes for a moment. “Give me five minutes, Vera, then start sending them…” She caught the concern in Vera’s eyes. “One in particular?” She asked. “Little girl… Infection, maybe pneumonia,” she shrugged. “Sounded bad to me.” Jessie nodded. “Then send her in first, Vera.” She pushed her way through the doors that lead to the back area and shrugged into a gown before grabbing the first chart off the board and beginning to read.
by W Sweet (Author) #Zombie #Horror #Kindle #Amazon
America the Dead Survivor Stories three contains books five and six of the Series. War at Home two: Donita: The hunger was terrible, all consuming, and it came in crashing waves. The impulse to feed seemed to be the only coherent thought she had. It was hard to think around, hard to think past. It was all she could do not to rush from the trees, find the smell that tempted her and consume it. Eat it completely. Leave nothing at all… Zombie Fall: Arlene’s Journal: It’s the night before the six will leave to go back to the outside. I think of it that way… The outside. This place overwhelmed me for the first little while. That and having to kill a man. But it was worse for those who stayed behind when we made our way to this place. If they had not stayed to fight the rest of us would not have been able to get away…
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 5 #Zombie #Horror #Kindle #Amazon
America the Dead Survivor Stories One contains the first two books of the America The Dead series. Begins The End: When a catastrophic natural disaster looms on the near horizon, the government releases an airborne virus designed to make the human race better able to survive. Those that do survive are picking up the pieces of their world, and those that have died lay in their death sleep, but in their bodies the virus works on, mutating, setting the stage for a second catastrophe far worse that the first. Los Angeles: An apocalypse of epic proportions has shaken the Earth to its core. In the bigger cities the dead are growing quickly in numbers. Growing intelligent as they continue to change and mutate. They have one thought in their rotting brains, take over the world, and destroy those that live in the process. Billy Jingo leaves Los Angeles hoping there might be something better on the other coast…
Well, Earth’s Survivors is completely available from Amazon now and Kindle Unlimited, so free if you are a member. I hope those of you who downloaded it enjoyed it.
I am currently working on Wastelands. There are three books and a fourth due to be published soon, you can get them only at Amazon and again free on Kindle Unlimited. Zero – One – Two
It’s raining in New York. Heavy, cold rain. Summer has been pretty hard to find so far this season. I thought I would share part of my past week with you…
I use Windows Ten for my operating system. Not because I like Windows, but because Linux is not universally accepted yet. So I use Linux as much as I can and then Windows when I have to.
I purchased a new machine a month or so ago and it came with Windows Eleven. Oh, I could write a whole blog about how I hate Windows Eleven. And I do. It compromises you and your information on every level, because it insists on having it. It insists on knowing everything there is to know about you. Do you have five freckles on the inside of your left thigh? That would be about the only thing it doesn’t ask or know about it, but I would not count on the fact that it doesn’t know, it just might. Anyway, for me, too nosy. I buy the software and so I guess that means I am supporting the invasion of my privacy. But I would like it to be more like a car. A Toyota will drive me anywhere I want to go, but, so will a Ford, or a Chevy, or a Dodge, or, well, you get the idea. So why is it we only have Windows? Where the hell is the support for Linux? Or something else? Okay, That’s all I have on that.
So, I deep sixed the machine I bought because, as it turns out, you can not easily delete win 11, at least on this machine. It would not allow me to install my Win 10. I struggled with it for a week. I decided in that space of time that there was not redeeming quality there and then one day I went online, ordered the parts from Amazon to fix my old machine. Kicked myself for not doing that first, and once they came I spent a few hours fixing the old machine. Once I was done I unplugged the new machine, stuck it back in the box and slid it under my desk. It made a great foot rest until my mother’s machine locked up the other day.
Moms machine is my old machine. I wrote several short stories and my first novel on that machine, a lawn sale item I had all of 40.00 dollars into. “Well, how would you like a Windows 11 machine, Mom,” I asked? For her it’s great. She is a social animal, Mom is. I think something like 600 face book friends. She has all her on-line shopping places, her Kindle account. Huh, I said to her, people actually use computers to socialize? Mom just laughed at me. She figured out Win 11 immediately and has no problem with it. Humph…
I use Windows ten and it makes me money, or helps me to make a living. It’s a tool I use to run the software that makes my living, and allows me to access the publishing services I need to be able to make my living. It also allows me to buy and sell on-line if I so choose, use software to listen to music, manipulate my artwork and create Artwork too. Record Music of my own. Read other E-Books (Yes, I read other authors, not just the ones here at writerz.net). In short I spend a great deal of time in the Windows environment and all I ever do is complain about it, uh, sort of like I am right now. But once I got a load of Win 11 I decided I would embrace Win 10. No more complaints from me.
So, last week I went to Google for a translation for a phrase spoken by one of the characters in Earth’s Survivors Three. Candace Loi is Japanese and African American. Her Grandmother spoke Japanese. I remembered the pronunciation for Grand Daughter in Japanese, but did not want to hack the spelling. And, growing up and hearing it, having an idea in my head what it meant, and then what it really means are different things sometimes. I went with Magomusume instead of Mago. Magomusume is more formal, and not really used often. But, I didn’t want to confuse things, it’s not like the character can launch into a long explanation about why it is not usually used in the Gender specific form.
So, I found it, but, when I had searched, it had also shown me a few images of people that indirectly related to my search. Japanese life. Yes, for once, not porn that always seems to pop up, but actual people… With their clothes on. I was awed, and I did something I rarely do, I spent about four hours more on Google looking for more pictures of people from all walks of life. So when you read Earth’s Survivors Three and you reach the point where Candace explains Magomusume you will know that as soon as I wrote that I then spent four or so hours Googleing stuff. I went ahead and clicked the ‘Images’ link on Google. Like I said, usually I am Leery of it, but this time I carefully restricted my keywords and was rewarded.
Poor, Gypsies, Vietnamese, Japanese, Native American, African and African American. One simply led to the next. And, why look if you don’t intend to keep? The reason I thought of that is because I know a man who, whenever I visit, has his desktop machine (A MAC, Ironically) set to show different life scenes. And this is on his office machine, so, while I’m waiting, I watch the picture show. I have been there enough times to know the pictures, and so I anticipate certain ones.
I sit in the padded leather chair, in his office, in America, where even the very poor do not starve to death in the streets, or get shot or terrorized by soldiers, or shot, killed and dumped in a ditch somewhere. At least not as the normal course of a day. Violence does happen here too. Having both grown up poor, and spent time actually living on the streets as a teen, I understand that what we see on the surface is only a poor reflection of what is under that surface. But I sit in his padded leather chair and I watch scenes from all over the world. People, Artwork, Animals, Architecture and more. It’s pleasant to watch. Soothing. I suppose it is for him too.
But the images I discovered that day were people who knew nothing at all about me. My life. My computer. The life I lead is so far from their life that it might just be incomprehensible to them. In any case, for most of them, they will never live this type of life. And, they don’t look all that unhappy about the possibility of never living this life to me.
Yes, in some instances I’m sure they are. When their basic rights are violated, when they are oppressed, when they are hungry. Not our version of hungry, I mean when they have not eaten. Maybe for days. So, their life is not all roses, but they don’t miss what they have never thought about, seen, or experienced. And I looked at the pictures and I thought this is what I need to look at every day. This is what can keep me connected to the real world. That is important to me. Being grounded. Staying grounded.
So I spent about four hours and downloaded every picture that I came across that I liked. I put them in a folder and I have added to that folder a few times now when I have thought of other people I would like to see. Then I set my desktop to that folder and voila. I Guess I am bringing it up because it affected me in some unexpected ways.
First, I have 4 monitors, so as I work I can see the pictures change, for the most part. The only time I can’t is when I have something else up on the other monitors. But, I found that I tend to leave a monitor blank most of the time now. And that, throughout my day, I am watching the faces pop up. A mother in Africa with her baby. A band of Gypsies exiled by Hitler before or during the war. He hated them as much as he did the Jewish people. A proud but poor father in Mexico posing outside of a house most of us would not want to step inside of let alone call home, with his family. All smiling. Looks like they have a lot of love if not money.
A young Native American mother sometime back in the 1700’s staring wide eyed at the camera, her child held in her arms. She looks so young and scared. A little Boy smiling up at the camera, tribal scars on both sides of his face. He looks so happy. His smile is genuine. A mother nursing. Rebels posing with Machine Guns on a road in a jungle somewhere. A young Vietnamese woman making her way through the ruined streets of some Vietnamese city. A Chinese woman with her child on her back, wrapped and looking at the world go by as mom makes her way to where ever she is going. And more…
A family on the road. A father carrying his children. Images of war, images of peace. Images I have no context for, only the people looking into the lens of the camera, or away: Caught unawares. I realized it really was keeping the world in my mind. Why is that father carrying his children? What does that mother feed her children? Do they know about the western world? What do they think about it? I like it. It keeps the world on my mind. The part of the world that is important.
I don’t mean our jobs, bills, house payments aren’t important, I am only saying that people are more important. Seeing these people from all over the world. Some surely still living, some long gone away, keeps me grounded. If only because of what I just said. Know some a re gone. Some still here. It reminds me that there were times with my family, friends, I wish I could have back, had cherished more. Some of those people are gone now. If I remember them as I look at the pictures it’s like they never left. And, there are the questions I have for those I see in the pictures too. It keeps the important things in the world in perspective for me.
It has been an interesting week, and I am glad I made the change. It even makes me grateful, yes, grateful, to Microsoft for this desktop where I can watch those changing pictures. Or whoever came up with the idea. Does that mean I can’t complain about Windows anymore?
