Reality bites.
While millennials garner much of the negative press around financial issues — they live with their parents because they can’t get jobs! They spend all their money on avocado toast! — Gen Xers may be the ones who are really in trouble.
Just 16% of Gen Xers say that they included financial planning in their 2019 goals, according to a recent survey from Allianz Life. That’s compared with 27% of millennials. And when asked what 2019 resolution they were most likely to make, and to keep, just 38% mentioned managing money better and saving more; meanwhile 50% of millennials said that.
That lack of planning and goal-keeping could make a bad situation worse — as Gen X may already be financially worse off than other generations in a number of ways.
They’ve got the most credit card debt of anyone — yet still spend more than anyone on non-essentials. Members of Gen X have higher levels of credit card debt — which tends to carry a higher interest rate than most other debt — than other generations. Indeed, credit card debt levels peak between the ages of 45-54 at $9,096, with the second highest levels of debt being or those who are 35-44 at $8,235. Meanwhile, the under 35 set has just $5,808.
“Millennials and individuals over 74 years old held the least credit card debt. These two groups are also among the least likely to have a credit card, which can serve as a potential explanation behind the trend we are seeing here,” ValuePenguin explains of their data.
Despite their sky high credit card debt, Gen X spends big on non-essentials, according to data released in 2018 from finance site Bankrate.com. Indeed, “Gen Xers (ages 38-53) spend $3,473 annually on restaurant food, prepared beverages and lottery tickets, the most of any generation,” the report reveals. Meanwhile, millennials spend just $2,758.
“For the average American, a few thousand dollars may not sound like a lot to spend each year on dining out and other financial vices,” said Amanda Dixon, a Bankrate analyst. “However, if a Gen Xer was to invest that $3,473 a year for 10 years at an 8% return, they would end up with just over $50,000 that could go toward their retirement savings or their child’s college fund.”
They’re woefully under-saved for retirement. “While Generation X continues to struggle with saving and spending, millennials — although not without their own unique financial challenges — seem better positioned for retirement than their closest predecessors. Median retirement savings for Gen X is only $35,000, the same median amount as millennials, despite Gen Xers being much closer to retirement,” according to a study of 3,000 Americans by Allianz Life.
Having just $35,000 in retirement savings — especially when you’re a Gen Xer ages 37- 51 — is not even close to enough. Fidelity recommends that by age 40 you have three times your salary saved for retirement. Gen Xers may be so under-saved thanks to the competing financial demands of children — the Census Bureau estimates that will set parents back roughly $245,000 through age 18 — and caring for aging parents.
Their overall debt load is the highest of any generation. Not only is their credit card debt high, the total amount of debt they have is. Those in the 35-44 age group have “the highest debt levels of any age bracket,” SmartAsset notes, citing Federal Reserve data. Their average debt, at least among households with debt. is $152,400, compared to only about $82,000 for the under 35 set.
They’re more likely than other generations to say they can’t meet their financial goals. All of this debt and the lack of savings may explain why fewer than 1 in 3 members of Gen X says they think they can reach their long-term financial goals, according to a survey released in 2017 by FICO. Meanwhile, 45% of millennials and 36% of boomers say they will.
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Not to worry. Once the U.S. Dollar is unseated as the world’s reserve currency then all Americans, with the exception of “The Evil Fuckers”(TM) and their servants, will learn exactly what it means to be up-to-the-neck in debt and really poor.
“However, if a Gen Xer was to invest that $3,473 a year for 10 years at an 8% return, they would end up with just over $50,000 that could go toward their retirement savings or their child’s college fund.”
Bitch, please.
Another financial advisor touting 8% ROI…just like the pension funds that are scrambling for some huckster’s wet dream yield level.
And, the goal? $50k…for get this…a college education for their soy infused childrens. In a Liberal Arts socialist pit of debt. Uh, no.
Yes, stop the spending. Get TF out of debt. Send your kids to trade school. Wise advice, if not too late.
But, take your savings, and dump it into an IRA or 401k expecting compound interest and growth at 8%??
Call me skeptical.
I followed that plan, because, you know, long term, the stock market always has… given a positive ROI.
Except for, umm, let’s see…oh yeah, the 30-40% loss the fund took from the dot com tech bust in 2000, and umm…yes, the same % of forfeiture / vaporization after the housing bust in 2009.
But damn, those Wall St. banksters came out ahead, didn’t they?
And now, were in the middle or near the end of the Everything bubble.
On 2nd thought, to hell with it. Live it up. Throw all your desires on plastic cards. They can’t force you to pay the tab, when you don’t have the means, right?
Bankruptcy.
A Gen X concession, when the bubble drifts into the pin and pops. It’s coming.
To all generations, that continually fail to live within their means.
Thanks, FED.
See you on the street corner, with your cardboard sign, begging for handouts to feed yourself and your kids.
“Hey! This is MY corner. I’m hungry, now, too.”
“Say, brother. Can you spare an extra hundy or two? Out of work. Homeless. Hungry. God Bless.”
And the atheists might come to believe, but again. Too little, too late.
Yep. 8% return?
As someone smack dab in the middle of Gen X, I enjoyed your comment immensely. I put a pittance into my 401(k) and really don’t give any serious thought about donating more to a very corrupt system that I find reprehensible (Wall Street, bankers, politicians, etc.) I just have to laugh at the “sage advice” to stop buying $5 coffees and “invest” it in the whore houses and casinos on Wall Street. Besides, I’m a Folger’s kind of guy anyway. Now, if we COULD actually take that money and invest in actual whore houses and casinos, that would not only be a good investment, but be an imminently higher order of morality above your average 401(k).
The right option is to own your land outright and grow your own food not stand on the corner with a cardboard sign without dignity and begging. Man up and be self sufficient. When I see these people aged 45 I ask them if they are willing to work in the field for a day for $10 hour cash. They always say yes and when I ask them right now or when they never show or they cannot right at that moment. I come back by 6 hours later and remind them they would have $60 by now had they went with me. They laugh and say they made $200. It is their job, begging. I never give to beggars, ever. I always try and help but never give for nothing in return. However, I do five to people unasking and unsuspecting as that was my idea not them begging. Call me John galt….
Breaking people up by age group to show how fucked they are financially at this point is just stupid. Clearly from babies to the elderly a huge percentage of people are fucked financially if not now, then definitely in the future. As if investments are going to mean jack shit for most people as the US gov’t debt explodes, pensions explode, state pensions explode, and the few sane people left have to try and fight off the demo-commies. And that’s without worrying about serious issues with food production, water, and insect die-offs which will be further effecting food production. I’m pretty damn sure people are going to be more concerned with water/food within 20yrs then their stock portfolio or lack of one.
We are stuck in a messed up cycle where industrialized farming is both producing a ton of extra junk food, yet at the same time its killed the soil is propped up completely by chemicals and its wiping out bees and other insects, and polluting a lot of water to boot. Having less than 1% of our population producing the food is an extreme anomaly that can not last. Sadly, we have too many weak as hell, skilless individuals that just want to stare at their phones. Plus economic incentives to produce food aren’t really there either, at least until the wheel come off. Meanwhile the Soylent green new deal would just cause us to starve to death and freeze to death quicker as they try and produce solar cells to cover TX/CA completely or maybe FL as well. Solar cells lose 10% of their ability to produce electricity within 20yrs, need cleaned constantly, and need pesky sunshine. So they need to get rid of the clouds as well, and the wildfires. There is so much to worry about, that retirement funds is pretty much a worthless thing to consider unless your are basically ready to retire real soon. Retirement, fuck learning to eat bugs and save rainwater is the ‘retirement’ for nearly everyone else at this point. The phone zombie life disconnected from nature won’t last a helluva alot longer. It’s not IF, just when.
They gonna tax the rain water and the bugs is gone….
I’m in the process of scouting out the forest I wish to buy which will be my retirement. I’m planning on having that forest be my retirement in that I can garden/hunt/harvest and barter enough to keep myself and a few other alive. In S. Ohio along the Ohio river there are places where you can get 80 acres or so with both water and natural gas and get it for what a parking space for your car would cost where I currently live.
Any “saving” that I have are tied up in tools and precious metals.
How ’bout a little more on the fact that Gen X got demographically clubbed by the dot.com and ’08 nightmare, leaving them depleted. Take two hammer blows to the skull and then ask me how willing you’d be to chance #3. And 8% my fucking ass. Any generation that follows a significantly larger demographic is fighting an uphill battle as well. Not a boomer slam, unless you want it to be, but whatever.
Don’t forget that the H1B scam was going full steam when Gen-X left college, and found the entry-level jobs that they had trained for were filled with incompetent-but-inexpensive Pajeets and Wongs hired by pointy-haired boomer managers and execs.
I suppose the only poetic justice is that the people that hired the Pajeets and Wongs will be cared for in rest homes by whitey-hating negros who will torture them to death.
Anon, hit the nail on the head. People just wanna throw shade on us gen x but they refuse to look what we were going ong through. Over half were from divorced families. Their parents (boomers=generation me) were selfish as hell. We graduated college during the first Iraq war and Cintons recession. We were in school loan debt and no jobs since the recession. Many took basic level jobs and when they applied for a real on it looked as if their resume stated they were slackers working at the 7/11 because as you say the HB1 visa clinton influx took all the good jobs by immigrants that didnt have school debt and were not even college educated. Then by the time they saved some money they lost it all in 2001 tech stock crash. They fought hard to save again and get even to lose it all again in 2008, and their homes, marriages, and credit (bankruptcy), and even careers because some jobs went overseas or stopped competitive salaries. Many jobs no longer pay well and that is the only profession some gen x know. They are now in their 40’s and their talents have no place since corps went overseas or brought in new HB1 peoples. We are taking care of our selfish parents because they didnt save shit. We paid 400% more for our kids college to have them indoctrinated and live in our basement (yeah the millenials). We work our asses off and our divorce rate is less than 34% because we value famiky and are not selfish. We saw our parents and resented them and their lifestyle and vowed to never divorce and cherish family. But lets all just bash the shit outta the gen x. And praise the basement dwelling millenials with their $120k school debt lesbian dance theory bachelors degree. Because they saved $500 from that weed they sold and bought a bitcoin that magically turned to $5k. Yeah lets put them and their blue hair tattooed nose ringed self on the cover of Forbes. Many look like they have been bobbing for apples in a tackle box. Yeah, lets compare the x to millenials some more……
Also a Gen-Xer, but at the older end at around 50.
1. I wish they had some more clarity about what “savings” constitute. Does a $300,000 home with $50,000 left on the mortgage count as $50k debt or $250k asset/savings? Does a rare coin collection, 3000 oz’s silver and 30 oz’s gold count as “savings” since it’s not in a financial institution?
2. Many factors into the Gen-X struggles. My mom has dementia ( early still) and has moved in with me. My wife’s mom requires us to supplement her costs to stay in an ALF by $600 a month. How about the fact that our kids college education cost 300% more than prior generations since college tuition has skyrocketed. Throw in the many Gen-X parents who sired those millenials living in their basements….factor all of that in and the fact we can keep a roof over our heads and the bills paid and we struggle along admirably…………….
Defined pension plans…. good-bye.
401Ks, dependent on the stock market….OMG.
Social Security raising the ladder……. P-O-N-S-I-E
For most people, retirement as known in recent decades
will be extinct. Post WW2 had some good years but the
party is over. Better plan on working a low paying, humble
job well into your senior years to get by.
As a Gen X I agree with most of this article. For most, the outward appearance means more than reality. As a generation many of my peers are wildly insecure and need trophies to confirm their success. Who cares if they are one missed paycheck from disaster. Who do you think the 80% of federal workers were that were in crisis?
My best friend growing up was raised by a single mom in a shack by the creek. He retired at 40 after busting his ass for 20 years while saving and investing.
My wife and I laugh that people probably think we are barely scraping by because we live in an old house, drive used cars, and don’t give a shit what the Joneses think.
8%? Why do people question that? If anything it is low.
Since 1971, 68% of 10 year S&P returns have been between 8.9% and 19.28%. No 10 year span lost money. Even investing 100k in 2008 before the crash and letting it ride would be worth $216k today. That’s after taking the 37% hit in 2008 too.
Where do I get some of that 8% return?
AT&T. Just reinvest the dividends. Other than that people need to spend a few minutes a day or an hour or two a week reading financial pages and a good newsletter or two on investments and investing.
Too many fail to stop trying for home runs. Just buy solid stuff like McDonalds or ONEOKE and reinvest the dividends and let it ride. It isn’t rocket science but no one else is going to do as good a job as you can do for yourself. Perhaps some have been made to feel like it is complicated but that is just the line of those who want to stick their hand into your pockets. You CAN do it.
I’m Gen X and I hate that bullshit name. But being a Boomer would be even more embarrassing. As would being a Millennial. I have no faith I will be able to retire. I still contribute to my pension. It’s probably not going to be there when/if I live long enough to retire, and if it is, it will probably be a post-USSR-style pittance, but it’s still a really good deal to contribute to it at my current job. My employer puts an incredibly generous amount into it, even if I put the bare minimum. And there’s a chance my pessimism is unfounded. I’ve been predicting economic collapse for so long, I could literally retire from it with a good 20+ years’ service under my belt.
So it might be wasted money, but it might not be. It’s still better to be prepared.
In the meantime, I’ve also made a point to waste my income on a variety of terrible, barbaric, backwards investments, like PMs, boomsticks, tradeable goods, booze, books, blacksmithing tools and some knowhow to use them, garden seeds and gardening knowhow, lots of useful outdoors gear, and some food, etc. My current lifestyle makes this all not a waste, since I can use a lot of this stuff for my personal entertainment and enjoyment. I’m getting my child and spouse into it, too. I took the young one out for a night hike in a nearby canyon last weekend, just us moving silently through the snow in the dark, listening to coyotes messing with the neighbors’ dogs. We had a ball. I’m also doing more to get in better shape and I’m a little proud I’ve lost a good 1o pounds or more in the last few months. I’m eating less, but it’s a better quality of food than I was eating before, and I’m proud to see it seems to be working. I don’t eat out practically daily, like I used to, it’s nearly all organic home-cooked food, and I feel like it works for me. And I’m investing in board games and card games to play with the family. It’s been fun. I didn’t get that much when I was a kid and I think we missed out. This spring, we’re going to plant more fruit trees and berry bushes and maybe get some chickens. I’m so thankful DC is far away now.
I’m on the younger end of the Gen-X group. Starting a career in the wake of the dot.com bust and 9/11 was no small feat which started me off at a lower wage than what my peers were getting just a few years prior. I brushed that off as I was happy to have a job. Then just when I was getting good traction in my career the 2008-09 bust happened. I was just shy of having 10 years in. Not cheap enough to weather the storm but not vital enough either. Ho-lee-shit did that turn things sideways. My career was in survival mode but I made it through. Now for the better part of a decade things have been good and all upward trajectory. So of a 20 year career thus far a solid 1/3 has been no progress professionally. It’s a bit tough to save for retirement when you don’t have a job or took a massive pay cut. So I figure I’m about 5 years behind. It sucks but it’s a reality I freely acknowledge. I’m sure the next downturn will hold things up again. It’s a roller coaster and I just hope I end on the top.