The snowbird crowd is ageing

I guess DH and I are the first wave of Generation X. Neither one of us has any desire to 'snowbird,' though we do begin full-timing in January and will spend the winter months somewhere warm. The difference, I think, is that 'snowbirds' stay in one place all winter and do what they do at home. We have no desire to sit in one location, day in and day out; we have been doing that the last twenty years! I will admit, in some respects, our generation has less need for a 'community' and a sense of belonging, and a greater need to move. There are plenty of younger RVers who fulltime, they just don't stop in one place for months on end.

As to the comments about younger people not knowing how to save - many of our friends are retiring at 55 rather than waiting for social security. They saved and scrimped to enjoy their retirement. Some of our friends (a few are the youngest of the baby boomers) have retired and gone back to work out of boredom, not financial need. Maybe the 20-somethings don't know how to save yet, but many of us in our 40s are working hard to get out of the rat race as early as possible.

Well, DW and I are probably no more than 2 years from retirement. Full intentions were/are to join the snowbird ranks.
I'm of retirement age now, but the housing bust has me still with a mortgage. The other thing keeping me working is the unknown of what medical insurance will cost. I'm only 59 now so several years before Medicare.

The comments from Water-Bug are disturbing. I am one that will want to move on a regular basis, and the lack of decent parks /lots available on short notice is a huge concern. Granted, camping in Michigan in the summer is a reservation only propostion as well, however I'm only going for 2 weeks at a time so once there, we don't move.

In closing, as long as I am able to health and family wise, we plan on joining the ranks as soon as I feel the 401 and retirement will support the lifestyle.

My DW and I began snowbirding four years ago at ages 62 and 61. We chose the RGV Texas for a number of reasons. We are in a not-for-profit senior park. My comments are based on that setting.

1. Winter Texans are typically mid-westerners and Canadians from provinces north of that region
2. 
   Population growth in the midwest region is stagnant
3. Farmers were and are numerous Winter Texans
4. The actual number of farmers has declined as farm sizes are in the thousands of acres
5. 
   Fewer farmers, fewer Winter Texans
   

The artificially low interest rates on savings is another factor. If you wanted to earn $50K per year using 10 year fed treasuries; a low risk investment, you would need $2M.

Many others have expressed solid reasons why there has been a lull.

I am 70 and my wife is 58. In 1987 we bought 5 acres near Nogales, AZ to use as a "home base - south" because we knew we'd be snowbirds when the time came. Her parents had motor homes for 40 years (at age 85 they just sold the Class C they downsized to and are moving to a retirement village) and when they were snowbirds had strict itineraries with reservations and timetables. We have been RVers since the 70s but we look for different activities than her parents did. No golf and no bingo. We do Jeep trails, ride mountain bikes, take care of an Internet business, and boondock (or dry camp cheaply) with solar panels most of the time. Her parents rode bikes: 1960s 10-speeds with the handlebars turned around and big padded seats and only around the RV park. We ride 29ers with hydration packs and explore trails using our Jeep Wrangler to get us to the best places to ride.

She'll retire in 2 years but we have a summer business in the town that hosts our "base camp - north" where we have an apartment and shop for upgrades and maintenance on our diesel pusher. So I guess we'll only be "semi" retired.

I think the demographics are changing.

Craig

Executive wrote:
We are going to have to try this "snowbirding" thing out....:W...first thing we should do is define Snowbirding, Full Timing, Camping and RVing.....they all seem to run together. My definition of a snowbird was someone who lives in a northern climate and "migrated" to a warmer southern climate during the winter. These folks generally want to do the same things down south, they did up north. My parents, coming from Michigan, loved playing cards, any kind of cards. I grew up in Newport Beach California and I loved to surf, ski and go sailing. Very different lives and interests. We sold our S&B house, bought the bus and hit the road. Rare is the case we stay longer than a week at any campground. We don't partake in their parties, brunches, card clubs or pickleball. Instead, we're out in the toad looking for adventure and things that interest us. Traveling through Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and the southern states this past year was like a huge history lesson all over again, but much more interesting than it was in high school.

That said, what would we be called??? We still "winter" in Mesa where we bought a home for cash several years ago. The other 10 months, we travel the country adding to its' economy. Full timing snowbirds...???......Dennis

"Full-timing snowbirds"......chuckle, that's pretty good. I say that you are a good example of what I have tried to describe as today's baby boomers. We, as a demographic group, tend to be flexible, spontaneous, and adventuresome. "We roam from town to town". We don't fit into a pre-defined lifestyle, we make the lifestyle fit us. We tend to appreciate all different areas of the country for what is unique about that area and enjoy them.

You mentioned those southern states. Those states, as well as all other states are tremendously interesting to visit. The western states have definite attractions, but so do the others, just different things to enjoy. I think boomers appreciate diversity, even in our travels......and in snowbirding or whatever it's called.

I like your comment on defining those RVing terms. They do all run together and I tend to drop the distinctions and use them indiscriminately. I agree that the term "snowbirding" does bring to mind the people who tend to go south, plop down and play bingo in the clubhouse. As per usual, the boomers are probably going to change that image of "snowbirding" or develop our own term for what we do or how we approach winters.

We are going to have to try this "snowbirding" thing out....:W...first thing we should do is define Snowbirding, Full Timing, Camping and RVing.....they all seem to run together. My definition of a snowbird was someone who lives in a northern climate and "migrated" to a warmer southern climate during the winter. These folks generally want to do the same things down south, they did up north. My parents, coming from Michigan, loved playing cards, any kind of cards. I grew up in Newport Beach California and I loved to surf, ski and go sailing. Very different lives and interests. We sold our S&B house, bought the bus and hit the road. Rare is the case we stay longer than a week at any campground. We don't partake in their parties, brunches, card clubs or pickleball. Instead, we're out in the toad looking for adventure and things that interest us. Traveling through Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and the southern states this past year was like a huge history lesson all over again, but much more interesting than it was in high school.

That said, what would we be called??? We still "winter" in Mesa where we bought a home for cash several years ago. The other 10 months, we travel the country adding to its' economy. Full timing snowbirds...???......Dennis

rocmoc wrote:
While I agree with a lot that has be posted a major responsibility has been overlooked, the Parks/Campgrounds themselves. I am a Baby Boomer thu & thu, retired and well into my mid-sixties. But like many of my peers have no interest in the activities in most Parks/Campgrounds. I still ride dirt bikes, kayak, 4X4, ride bicycles & play hard. Rarely do we spend a lot of time in Parks/Campgrounds because they are boring. I boondock at the dunes, in Moab, on the Sea of Cortez and other play sites with other people like me or younger. The Parks/Campgrounds are going to have to change to attract the Baby Boomer. Sitting around for drinks or a nice dinner isn't a high priority. Baby Boomers are not like the past groups and if the Parks stay the same it will insure fewer younger RVers & more available sites the older RVers. Not trying to insult anyone but no one really addressed what active Baby Boomers want. JMHO!

There are plenty of folks just like you who are extremely active and crave different types of places to stay. We're in our 70's and are doing physical activities daily. I really think you find more active people RVing in the western states because those states lend themselves to more active outdoor activities. Our first choice is always a public park or boondocking because we are then right in the midst of of hiking or 4-wheeling spots.

We've tried Florida and the southern states but the 'activities' are just so much less active. Everyone is different, for sure. I agree that the upcoming generations will require more active activities because being active is what is stressed nowdays to keep yourself healthy. In our generation it wasn't stressed as much. However, thankfully, we enjoy being very active.

aauummm wrote:

You hit the nail on the head as far as I am concerned. I was going to get into what active Baby Boomers want in my previous post but decided not to as it would take too much time and effort to explain it. However, I will go ahead and address that. We enjoy doing a wide variety of active outdoor things just as you do.

We off-road (done Moab, etc.), explore ghost towns, desert and country hiking, rock hounding, nature photography, sight seeing, bicycling, National Parks, etc., etc. I got interested in Patton's WWII Desert Training Camps so we explored them on a whim (fascinating history).

We don't do bingo, potluck, cards, shuffle board, golf, park parades, structured craft classes, etc. We are very apt to do spur-of-the-moment things and avoid a strict schedule. For snowbirding we prefer to do different locations each winter. Same with traveling. I enjoy the desert SW for all of the variety and outdoor activities available and the RGV for their outdoor activities. However, in contrast, we might visit a museum or zoo on one day and then the next day explore the dunes on South Padre and then follow that up with a seafood dinner with a nice glass of wine at a nice restaurant.

I do notice that a lot of us boomers enjoy up-scale RV parks to have as a home base. We like to have lots of elbow room and a degree of privacy. We like the concrete pads, patios and drives, paved streets, landscaping, strong internet, quiet, etc. Those types of parks seem to be thriving from what we've seen.

At other times I love a more primitive Rving experience so we'll do boondocking or public campgrounds such as the Corps of Engineers or National Forest CG's, etc.

There's lots of wonderful things in this country to stick our noses into and we are going to try to do as many as possible!

Thank you for your post above.

We'll be snowbirding in a few years... and this thread was starting to bum me out.

rocmoc wrote:
While I agree with a lot that has be posted a major responsibility has been overlooked, the Parks/Campgrounds themselves. I am a Baby Boomer thu & thu, retired and well into my mid-sixties. But like many of my peers have no interest in the activities in most Parks/Campgrounds. I still ride dirt bikes, kayak, 4X4, ride bicycles & play hard. Rarely do we spend a lot of time in Parks/Campgrounds because they are boring. I boondock at the dunes, in Moab, on the Sea of Cortez and other play sites with other people like me or younger. The Parks/Campgrounds are going to have to change to attract the Baby Boomer. Sitting around for drinks or a nice dinner isn't a high priority. Baby Boomers are not like the past groups and if the Parks stay the same it will insure fewer younger RVers & more available sites the older RVers. Not trying to insult anyone but no one really addressed what active Baby Boomers want. JMHO!

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

You hit the nail on the head as far as I am concerned. I was going to get into what active Baby Boomers want in my previous post but decided not to as it would take too much time and effort to explain it. However, I will go ahead and address that, knowing that I am just hitting a few of the high spots. We enjoy doing a wide variety of active outdoor things just as you do.

We off-road (done Moab, etc.), explore ghost towns, desert and country hiking, rock hounding, nature photography, sight seeing, bicycling, National Parks, etc., etc. I got interested in Patton's WWII Desert Training Camps, for example, so we explored them on a whim (fascinating history and still lots of stuff left out there in the desert that has survived even after 70 years!). We do a lot of day trips and may roam off to something interesting that's a hundred miles away or more from our base campsite.

We don't do bingo, potluck, cards, shuffle board, golf, park parades, structured craft classes, etc. We are very apt to do spur-of-the-moment things and avoid a strict schedule. For snowbirding we prefer to do different locations each winter. Same with traveling. I enjoy the desert SW for all of the variety and outdoor activities available and also the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas for their outdoor activities. However, in contrast, we might visit a museum or zoo on one day and then the next day explore the dunes on South Padre Island and then follow that up with a seafood dinner with a nice glass of wine at a nice restaurant.

I do notice that a lot of us boomers enjoy up-scale RV parks to have as a home base. We like to have lots of elbow room and a degree of privacy. We like the concrete pads, patios and drives, paved streets, landscaping, strong internet, quiet, etc. Those types of parks seem to be thriving from what we've seen.

At other times I love a more primitive Rving experience so we'll do boondocking or public campgrounds such as the Corps of Engineers or National Forest CG's, etc.

There are lots of wonderful things in this country to stick our noses into and we are going to do as many as possible! Happy RVing to all of us regardless of what floats our boats!

i was born in 1954 in the middle of boomers made a good liveing raised my kids and retired at 58 i was a warehouseman for 40 years no union just saved and now my wife has a business at home so we can go when we want it wasent easy but did it