If you were a schoolchild when England won the World Cup and the first LP you bought was Revolver by the Beatles, then congratulations.

The `baby boomer' generation, born in the late 1940s and 1950s, have hit the financial jackpot by being in the right place at the right time throughout their adult lives, according to new research in Britain.

In the 1970s they were buying their first homes, often with endowment mortgages. If they were lucky, they would have benefited from three, or possibly four, house price booms - in the early 70s, the late 70s, the prolonged 1980s boom and the continuing late 1990s' boom.

The baby boomers, the children of the 1960s who shunned material possessions, now find, somewhat to their surprise, they are actually quite wealthy.