The snowbird crowd is ageing

pawatt wrote:
Seems to me in Texas the snowbird crowd is ageing, most are over 70 and many over 80. Every year more are too sick or old to make the trip and many have passed on. There are very few younger snowbirds replacing them, seems anytime someone new under 65 comes in it is a rarity. Nearly all parks have many vacancies when 10 years ago it was advisable to have reservations if you wanted a spot for the winter.

Your Observations ???

I agree. The last time we wintered in Texas was 2010/11 when I was 64. (Having been born in Nov 1946, I am the first of the baby boomers.) The park that we were at had quite a few our age but some that were 70+ up to late 80's. Everywhere we went in the Valley there were lots of older people 80+ and 90+ so we felt like youngsters (not totally a bad thing and I love older people). They were living it up though and would out dance me at Pepe's!

After observing this in both the RGV and in AZ/CA I got to thinking that the snowbirding thing is facing huge changes. There were hardly any baby boomers showing up. The ones that I met were mainly in the following groups: retired military, retired government employees including postal workers and small business owners who had sold their business and hit the road.

I don't think that those groups have enough people who want to snowbird to replace the older ones who can't and won't be able to do it anymore.

I have a few years before I retire. I spend my vacation time up North in the summer. When I retire I will snowbird, but that is another 7 years from now. I have never been to Southern TX or Southern FL. Who knows what the future holds. There are a lot of good answers in the above post's as to why. And some combinations of those reasons why there are less snowbirds. There were a lot of good paying jobs that went overseas or to Mexico. The days of young people being with one company all their life is over for the most part. Look at all the people that graduate from college without a job and a large debt that move back home. Add on to that of their parents living longer and needing care as well.

This is our first year snowbirding and I'm disillusioned. My concept of RVing is moving about and exploring America. Unless you make reservations well in advance, it is more and more difficult to find a DECENT place to stay. If you've never been there befor, and the good spots are reserved, you end up with a crummy site or no site at all. The alternative is to find a good spot and stay there, which goes against my concept of RVing. The solution is to buy a place in Florida, while the prices are down, and RV in the Summer. That way you have an entire country to explore, without being a fulltimer.

EDIT. Our first RV was a pickup camper in '74, followed by a MiniWinnie class C in '77, so RVing isn't new to us. (Just snowbirding)

Some of us "younger" guys are working hard so we can retire early. Sadly however to many of my friends are in debt to their eyes with no hope of paying it off before they die.

I'll keep my pop-up a few more years until I can pay cash for my big boy camper.

I believe there is a lot of merit to what has been said on priorities. Most younger people today don't save anything back for hard times. They go out and spend their checks before worrying about the utilities and mortgage. Most will never retire due to lack of planning or the want of some new item or a better house. Very few start out with a lesser fixer upper they start out with a home nicer than their parents have (after the parents worked years to get). As said above most hire everything done as they don't know how or refuse to dirty their hands. They live in a country that doesn't know how to budget, so why should they live within one?

rockhillmanor wrote:
IMHO it's not that the next younger generation has it 'harder' they just did not know how to spell 'savings'.

Thats pretty much it. Unfortunately.

I have a few years before I retire. I spend my vacation time up North in the summer. When I retire I will snowbird, but that is another 7 years from now. I have never been to Southern TX or Southern FL. Who knows what the future holds. There are a lot of good answers in the above post's as to why. And some combinations of those reasons why there are less snowbirds.

When I quit working eleven years ago at age 59, I was one of the youngest people in the parks. I still am. The younger people are not arriving and the average age of the parks I visit is over 70, maybe closer to 73.

Lots of reasons, but we were the most blessed financial group in history with plentiful job opportunities and enough inflation to fatten the most inept investor. We are doing what our parents enjoyed, but I don't see our children wanting the same thing. Condos, airplane trips, cruises, lots of things to spend their money on rather than a tin can on wheels.

We've been in AZ and TX for the past 5 years. Seems like the TX crowd is a little younger than the AZ bunch. We're in our late 60's and many of our TX neighbors are our age or younger. Places we go to are usually almost full. We think we're just average folks. Medium priced fiver and truck the same as lots of others. Maybe we just don't hang out at the right places??

B.O.

The younger folks have much higher cost for "necessities" than we did.
Cell phone plans with unlimited minutes and a new phone every year.
Leased cars . How could you possibly drive a car more than 2 years old or one that costs less than 50K ?
Clothing without a designer label would never be found in their closet.
Then there is the high labor cost of maintaining the house. Doing manual labor such as cleaning, painting,landscaping and repairs is definitely out.
Working a second or third job would be an embarrassment and cut into their social life.
Cable TV without every premium channel is a definite necessity.
With all of these necessities the credit cards are maxed out and the second mortgage to pay for the new designer kitchen & bath there is no money to put into a 401k.
The best solution is to go on vacation to relieve the stress of not having money for retirement.