I am now 31 and thank goodness! According to a new book released yesterday called “The Dumbest Generation,” by Mark Bauerlein, you should not trust anyone under 30 because they got stoopid using the Internet. Bauerlein is an English professor at Emory University who has also lamented the death of literature readers as a researcher for the NEA.

I haven’t gotten my hands on the book yet, but come, now. I know he wants to sell books (and I may even pick up a copy and READ it since at at my age I am only on the cusp of being dumb), but where does he get off calling millions of people a “bad word,” as my kids would say?

I came across the book and its thesis at the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtor’s blog: The Skinny.

I’ve always been a proponent of making money a less taboo subject. Then we can finally put those Joneses to rest and perhaps some of the credit card debt along with ‘em.

Today, the Wall Street Journal’s work and family blog The Juggle has a post about whether sharing salary could be beneficial, helping to reduce salary disparities at work and eliminate the sometimes damaging assumptions that people might have about who makes what.

The blog mentioned a story in The New York Times from a couple of weeks back that I’m surprised I missed (Oh– they put it in the Fashion section– I guess it’s fashionable to talk salary).

Anyway, the story is about how people in their 20s and 30s are more likely to share their salaries with each other than workers in older generations.

It’s a thought provoking story, but when I read this paragraph, I couldn’t help but think, oh puh-leeze:

For people old enough to remember phone booths, a blunt reference to salary in a social setting still represents the height of bad manners. But for many young professionals, the don’t-ask-don’t-tell etiquette of previous generations seems like a relic.

There was a phone book junking up my front steps when I got home from work yesterday. They aren’t like do-do birds or dinosaurs. Clearly I am so old that I need glasses, or so young that I hadn’t even heard of those booth-things so I figured it must be a typo. Sorry for the confusion.

And I bet that most people still don’t reveal their salaries without at least considering whether they should first– even if they are 25.

I’ll say from my experience that salary still is not a comfortable discussion in my circle of friends.

What do you think? And if you’ve been dying to tell people how much you make, or are willing to trade your salary in a “safe place” in order to gain insight on others’ salaries, do spill.

Ameriprise conducted a survey last spring about different generations’ money attitudes and beliefs.

Here’s an excerpt of the release:

Forty-six percent of the adult children of boomers say they are very optimistic about their personal financial future, compared to 39 percent of boomers and only 28 percent of the boomers’ parents’ generation who report they are very optimistic about their financial future.

Likewise, 48 percent of the adult children of boomers say that they are very confident in their ability to reach all of their financial goals over time; only 36 percent of boomers and 34 percent of boomers’ parents feel the same way.

To me, these numbers speak more to time constraints than anything. It’s a lot harder to feel confident about financial futures and reaching financial goals if you’re 90 years old. You’re not working, you have a finite amount of money and have a lot of time to sit around and watch your nest egg shrink and grow with the day’s market gyrations. When you do venture out to the store you see the price of groceries and medicine rising above the bump in your Social Security check that’s supposed to cover cost of living increases.

The press release highlighted how younger generations are more optimistic than their parents. But to me, what stands out is that more than half of those surveyed are worried.

Maybe I just run with a gloomy crowd, but I’m not hearing from “very confident,” “very optimistic” people– in my personal life or in my work.

Instead, I hear a generation concerned about a future of higher taxes, wage stagnation, job insecurity, an American economy poised to take a backseat to the “third world,” and college tuition inflation.

I am hopeful that I will have a decades-long, satisfying career and decades-long enjoyable retirement. But I am worried about some of what I mentioned above.

How about you? Confident about your financial future? Confident, but concerned? Or are your genuinely worried? And why?

I spent the past four days in Washington at a fellowship examining retirement issues in the 21st century.

I learned some, debated some and came home with lots of data about the graying of our society.

For those of you living on another planet (or another generation who wrongly believes these issues have nothing to do with you), the gist is that there are a lot of people about to enter their senior years, that they are living longer, that health care is growing more expensive, that they aren’t saving enough, and that they might run out of money unless they work longer (if they are healthy enough to do so and can find employers willing to hire them).

As I sat listening to presentation after presentation about these issues, I started reflecting upon my own savings. I’m not expecting a 30 year retirement consisting of travel and bingo (although I’m game for both). I figure I’ll earn some money doing work I enjoy until I’m at least 70 if i’m healthy. Yet I am always planning for retirement using calculators designed for a “retire at 65 and you’re done” mentality.

Does that mean that I could possibly be saving too much? Yes, especially if my husband and I both see our pensions and and if Social Security survives and if we stay healthy and if we get an inheritance or help paying for college and if the market doesn’t tank right as we retire and if and if and if.

This is my long-winded way of saying that I’m going to keep saving under the old paradigm because I don’t want to be someone who outlives her money.

On the other hand, check out this chart from a presentation given by Barbara Bovbjerg from the Government Accountability Office. It basically shows that if a 35-year-old today delays retirement, the percentage their salary they need to save drops from around 12 percent per year if hanging it up at age 62 to saving roughly 4 percent if they plan to work until age 70.

Do you think you’ll retire after age 65? How do you imagine retirement will be like for Gen X and Y?

I thought I’d share with you excerpts of some emails I received from readers after they finished my Friday column about teens and summer jobs.

Will’s job stank:

My first job was as a dishwasher when I was 16. The restaurant had Friday Night Fish Boils, so I spent a lot of Friday nights scrubbing out giant, fish-scented pots still hot from the stove. Often, they had deposits of fish bones or scales in the bottom. It was gross, but the money made me feel pretty independent for a 16-year-old. I remember at the end of the summer, I bought a J.Crew sweater for $80 (a lot of money for me then). It was nice to want something and get it guilt-free because I had worked hard for it.

Laverne’s job was sweet:

The salary was 35 cents an hour! I was 15 and our next door neighbor owned a small Five and Ten cent store on Lake Street in south Minneapolis. I don’t remember how many hours a week I worked, but I will tell you I worked hard for those hours.

The manager’s office was up on a balcony where he could observe the whole floor of the store. Behind the counter were small flop down seats, but you didn’t dare sit on one as you would be buzzed by the manager to let you know you should be on your feet, ready to serve whoever came into the store.

The only really fun time was when I was able to work behind the candy counter! All those heaps of candy to be measured out and sold by the pound. Occasionally I’d be able to pop one into my mouth if no one was looking.

The first thing I bought with my earnings was a short plaid “swing” coat. I was so proud of that purchase!

Joy’s job was dirty, but she liked the money:

My first job was wiping address stencils at a local news paper. I would take the individual stencil, put solvent on a rag and cleaned off the ink. The processes was repeated for three hour shifts two days a week when I was in the 9th grade. My fingers became black with ink which helped me quit biting my nails. I worked in the backshop where the big printing press was located and I learned a lot about printing that summer. I bought a 10 speed bike with earnings from the job and then rode it to work. It was a dirty job but I liked having a purpose and of course the money.

Tree’s first jobs– reading and receptionist:

My first paid job was as a library clerk at my local public library branch in 1968. My first job at the library is still my favorite paid job [aside from raising my daughter]. I went on to become an attorney, a consultant and a writer.

[In college] I got a work study job as a receptionist in my dorm. Boys were not allowed on the residential floors. Being receptionist meant that I got to buzz the female students in their dorm rooms to notify they had a visitor. One buzz meant they had a phone call and then they had to go down the hall to pick up the phone, on phone per floor. Two buzzes meant they had a visitor at the desk. Three buzzes meant they had a male visitor at the desk. This was also a fantastic job; warm and social. It was so much fun to do the three buzzes. I was born right in the middle of the baby boom. When I was a teenager, it used to be hard to even gets jobs at McDonald’s because there were so many teenagers looking for jobs. My white collar job at the library, using my mind, was a big step up from fast food or, even, retail sales. All my friends envied me.

Getting a job as a teen isn’t easy these days either. According to the Labor Dept, only 48.8 percent of teens ages 16 to 19 were working or looking for work at the start of summer, down from 51.6 percent last year and 60.2 percent in 2000. Economists guess that some students are opting not to work to attend summer school or take unpaid internships. But some just can’t find work.

What was your first job? Do you think it’s important that teens work?