Contrarian Investor: The real inter-generational financial strains

Will new Prime Minister attack pension benefits?

After the Brexit vote there has been lots of excited talk about generational unfairness. Some of it is fair. Ignoring the overwhelming consensus among younger voters with the put down "well, they should have voted then" is not conducive to rebuilding dialogue.

One view is the older are wealthier and thus better able to withstand any volatility resulting from Brexit, whereas the young will feel the effects more directly.  These arguments fuel a simplistic, binary discussion about inter-generational wealth - old richer, young poorer - which completely misses the much deeper interconnections and dependencies between age groups. One obvious example is that many older investors are suffering real financial stress in order to deal with their own still unpaid debts - some of it to help their offspring.  Homewise, the over-60s property experts, ...