Members of the Baby Boomers generation are not selfish and greedy as they are stereotyped, a study released Thursday by the University of Adelaide concluded.

The proof to debunk the myth is $23 billion that members of the generation born between 1946 and 1964 spent in 2011 in Australia to help their adult children and elderly parents. The amount was mainly used to help their kids purchase their first homes or finish university and pay for cost of living and care for their parents.

"In fact, it appears that the over-50s are quietly picking up the slack in area where public policy has failed," National Seniors Australia (NSA) Chief Executive Michael O'Neill said in a statement. The university conducted the study for NSA.

At the same time, Mr O'Neill warned Australian policy makers not to justify changes in social system based on the sheer number of baby boomers who have started to retire from the workforce. He pointed out that if the government cuts their superannuation concessions, the Baby Boomers would have less capacity to help the older and younger generations.

The release of the University of Adelaide study came at the same day that a similar report on Baby Boomers was issued by Scarborough Research in New York. However, the findings of the U.S. study showed a different side of American Baby Boomers in that they are using their money to travel extensively.

The report said the members of that generation are creating an unprecedented travel boom within and outside the United States. About 9 per cent of them went to Las Vegas in the past 12 months and 34 per cent visited a casino. Reckoned the past three years, 12 per cent took a vacation in the Caribbean, 9 per cent went to Europe and 3 per cent went on a business or leisure trip overseas.

In the next 12 months, 81 million Baby Boomers plan to travel and spend $126 billion, according to Leisure Travel Trends. The wanderlust of the above-50s generation is attributed to their making up for lack of adventure during their earlier years which they spent working hard for the money.

Some children and grandchildren of the Baby Boomers, however, are a bit worried that their inheritance could be blown up in a Las Vegas casino trip. That worry, though, appear to be the least concern of heirs of Australian Baby Boomers.