Retiring at 85

I think she's painting a prettier picture than what reality is cuz some of our X'ster brothers and sisters really blew it financially.

Boomers and Gen Xers, raised in more financially conservative times, cautiously embraced the buying doctrine, delivered with toothy TV commercials showing happy people luxuriating on credit-bought vacations or in credit-financed new kitchens.

"I grew up at a time when my parents didn't just give me money," says Nixon, born in 1969. "I had to work for it, I had jobs throughout college."

Generation X became comfortable with credit cards, she says, but retained memories of more cautious ways.