Next up in not preparing for retirement: Gen X

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

Typical Gen X (42-58 years old) household has an average of $243K in retirement savings but that's only because the highest savers drive that number up. The median Gen X household is only at $40K.

Here is a breakdown of household retirement savings by income levels:

The bottom 50% median is at $200 and $4,300. I understand that life isn't cheap and they probably spend the majority of their income on basic necessities but this doesn't bode well for them in the future. 

And even crazier when breaking this down for individual Gen X. It took me a second to wrap my head around $0 medians.

 

As Gen Xers start hitting SS benefit age over the next 20 years, Congress will have no choice but to print more money to make up for the SS shortfalls.

 

Sources: 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/success/gen-x-retirement-savings-boomers/index.html

https://www.nirsonline.org/reports/genx/

 

[Celery Man 20931]

What have similar figures been for boomers and silents?

I’m hoping to avoid getting dinged by my wife’s parents who are probably in that zero range.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13508]

21 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

What have similar figures been for boomers and silents?

I’m hoping to avoid getting dinged by my wife’s parents who are probably in that zero range.

It would be good to find what Boomers had from approximate the same age but I don't know where to find that. I did find that today, Boomers have an median household retirement savings of $202K. This new report also shows Gen X at $100K median which contradicts my above post that estimates Gen X at a median $40K. Who knows what is right.

I assume that Gen X has much fewer pension-like plans than Boomers and definitely Silents. Gen X will bring in even more retirees that are 100% responsible for their retirement income minus SS.

My Silent generation parents went with employer plans that gave them income instead of building an investment fund. While they had more guaranteed income, most of the income was locked in at retirement age, and they had no exposure to stock gains, or losses. Over 20 years their purchasing power dropped dramatically.

[UTGrad98 2271]

I look at these from time to time. Its the same for every generation past present and future.  Its the median retirement savings that's the real eye opener even for the top quartile. Basically the bottom 50% of everyone hasnt saved anything. And these numbers are the same for all age brackets and always have been. What skews the overall average savings is the top 3-5% of the US population and their 1 million - 100 billion in savings/worth. Everyone else either has nothing or not near enough.

And yet we all mostly live to be like 80 on average and lots of poor people die in their 90s so its not the end all be all. Now quality of life years. That is something to look at and money would/could help live a better/healthier life for longer.

[52-80 19146]

Note that theyre presenting specifically *retirement account balances*, which are IRA/401k/Keogh/etc, and not actual net worth, which includes things like property, plain banking accounts, which 4x the apparent numbers

 

 

[Guest]

52-80, that was going to be my post.

Just looking at retirement is a fool's errand. When it comes to retirement, you aren't only going to be drawing on what's in a 401k or IRA. It also doesn't include SSI, which is a major part for most people. If you were to add that into retirement savings based on the lifetime, value, things would look much better.

[52-80 19146]

28 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

52-80, that was going to be my post.

Just looking at retirement is a fool's errand. When it comes to retirement, you aren't only going to be drawing on what's in a 401k or IRA. It also doesn't include SSI, which is a major part for most people. If you were to add that into retirement savings based on the lifetime, value, things would look much better.

in retirement we expect most to have owned their homes which lowers the highest component of spending. The US homeownership rate stays pretty much at 65% for decades, suggesting same rate for different generations. 
 

ive seen (but cant find) someone overlay the ownership rate by age for different generations and they all track exactly  

it probably mirrors this fun one below:

[Guest]

1 minute ago, 52-80 said:

in retirement we expect most to have owned their homes which lowers the highest component of spending. The US homeownership rate stays pretty much at 65% for decades, suggesting same rate for different generations. 
 

ive seen (but cant find) someone overlay the ownership rate by age for different generations and they all track exactly  

it probably mirrors this fun one below:

Damn, taking wealth from ~$100,000 per capita at 38 to ~$600,000 at 48 is something.

[UT_OB1 2215]

2 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

in retirement we expect most to have owned their homes which lowers the highest component of spending. 

Clearly you haven’t met my wife or seen her Amazon orders. 

[52-80 19146]

3 minutes ago, UT_OB1 said:

Clearly you haven’t met my wife . 

Can you share a pic to confirm ?

[YGIFS 19449]

Meh, I'm a latter Gen-X'er (I think, 1976).  What I do, I can do until I'm 70 from anywhere.  But I'll have to do it full-time+ to maintain a decent lifestyle and help the kids through school/grad school/start a life.  NO fucking way in the world should anybody my age even utter the words "Social Security."  If they send me so much as one check, it's all hookers and blow earmarks.  I'd like to truly retire from about 70 to 80.  Just spend an hour on the phone/email per day checking up on assets and then play grandpa.  I don't plan on leaving the kids anything except maybe a vacation home and some furniture.  They'll be fine.  

I obsessed in my 20's over busting my ass and retiring at 55 or 60.  As I'm getting closer to 55, I'm realizing I have zero interest in it.  I have also have zero interest in working.  But I don't really have to be anywhere or answer to anyone.  The tradeoff though is I'll never hit that "financial independence" number or date.  No deferred comp. plan, no employer match.  I'll be chasing down deals and carried interests until I'm 70+.  Plus some side hustles, i think most of our generation will live like that.  We really were the first to break the mold of work for one company for 40 years, retire with the prime rib luncheon and gold watch and pension.  I don't "gig economy" like people younger than me.  And we're certainly not special, but we were kinda different.  I'll never have to fein interest again in a break room conversation for the rest of my life, but I'll sweat making payrolls and getting my own 1099/K-2's in order each year until I'm a very old man.  

One cheat code our generation figured out which was staring America in the face for over a century.  Why the fuck should we be loyal to a company that never gave fuck one about us in the first place?  Hard work?  80 hours in the office each week?  Company Man?  Loyalty to Management?  For what?  That made for a nice eulogy in the 1970's.  Now, it'd make people in the pews hold back their laughter.

[52-80 19146]

17 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Why the fuck should we be loyal to a company that never gave fuck one about us in the first place?

Did anyone ever truly believe and act according to ‘loyalty’, or did they simply have commitment to performance out of interest to self and their immediate team…which is wholly natural.  You do a good job because it reflects well on you, and helps the folks you work next to…not because youre boosting the corporate P&L. 

[YGIFS 19449]

Fair question.  It just seems like all the folks I know over 60 or so, or whom were friends/colleagues of my dad made it a point of pride to work for one company and stay there no matter what.  I guess it lifted them and maybe some around them, but I also watched my dad hire dozens of friends and in-laws over the decades because they were laid off of other companies because they got blind-sided by attrition.  I was raised to take care of the people underneath me.  The people that are my lateral counterparts or above me, I couldn't give fuck one about them.  It is a nice feeling to do a good job and lift others as you do it.  But I've never felt satisfaction of self-validation because of the job I did in any given day.  Probably due to the nature of my job of fixing problems or problematic people.  The next day just brings more human ineptitude and misery.  So I'm never done.  Only satisfaction I get in life is from wife and kids, and sometimes fishing.  Attaching even a modicum of my identity to work is so fucking foreign to me.  I know people do it, I wish I could go back and be an architect like Art Vandelay and smile at a building I created, but alas---I have the hand-eye coordination of Stephen Hawking.

But doing a good job to reflect well upon me and my team?  Let's just intimidate who we need to intimidate, reward who we need to reward, pay back our investors, and move onto the next project so we can go home and play with our kids.  If my employees are ever looking for corporate team building, margarita Thursdays, or personal validation...they can always work at Dell or Oracle or wherever the fuck people in Austin work that offers a sales contest or employee stock purchase plan.  As such, as stated, I'll be chasing this shit down for 25 more years.  No real retirement, no shiny Town Car as a parting gift, no cheap watch and cake sendoff.  That's our generation.  And that's fine.  Because I never, ever have to sit in a meeting or a power point presentation and pretend I give a shit.

[strangulation! 1714]

4 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Damn, taking wealth from ~$100,000 per capita at 38 to ~$600,000 at 48 is something.

i'd be curious to see how much of that is money moving across generations. i bet a lot of folks lose their parents in that range, along with serious corporate ladder climbs during that same time.

[DalTxHornFan 3097]

5 hours ago, YGIFS said:

  As such, as stated, I'll be chasing this shit down for 25 more years.  No real retirement, no shiny Town Car as a parting gift, no cheap watch and cake sendoff.  That's our generation.  And that's fine.  Because I never, ever have to sit in a meeting or a power point presentation and pretend I give a shit.

My man!  And I'll add that I always decline to participate in any Microsoft Teams meetings!

[texasdago 7567]

7 hours ago, YGIFS said:

As such, as stated, I'll be chasing this shit down for 25 more years.  No real retirement, no shiny Town Car as a parting gift, no cheap watch and cake sendoff.  That's our generation.  And that's fine. 

Yeah, honestly, WTF is retirement.  To me I think I'm going to be working for a long ass time.  That said, "retirement" will be not supporting my sons.  But I think a lot of us Gen-Xers realize that our parents "pension days" were not designed for us.  I guess we'll got some SS but pension?  WTF is that?  I briefly had a pension account in the 10 months I worked at Enron.

 

Enron.

Edited September 29, 2023 by texasdago

[Guest]

I will get zero inheritance.

I have worked for the same company 29 years and plan on continuing thru age 62 at a minimum, which would be 10 more years.

My pension is substantial, but they recently changed it to where it will stop accruing more money in 2025.  That's a move that fucked me out of $250k, at a minimum.  I was not pleased then, I am not pleased now; however, I do make a good salary and 10 more years of that is also very substantial.  I wanted my pension to be worth a million dollars when I retired, and I put up with a lot of crap with that goal in mind.  I will not quite make it there, due to no fault of my own.  It pisses me off because it feels like a certain commitment was made, and then rescinded with the attitude of, "Tough deal, motherfucker.  Oh fucking well."

 Additionally, I have saved in my 401K since the early days, which also matched back then.  That is a substantial plank in my retirement planning, as well.

As someone else said, if I ever draw my social security, that part will be gravy.

People give me shit about any semblance of loyalty to my employer.  My savings and retirement say I was loyal to my wife and family on a financial level.  In the end, that's all I ever cared about from early adulthood.  Build a life where she ain't worried about shit, when it comes to money.  Even with the change in our pension, she'll be OK.

 

[tx 3 putt 76868]

I’m doing my part, trying to marry up a 24 yo nursing student !

[DalTxHornFan 3097]

19 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

I’m doing my part, trying to marry up a 24 yo nursing student !

Yes sir.  That is some 3-D chess there!

[YGIFS 19449]

Pics please!

”of my retirement portfolio?  I dunno, seems awfully personal.”

no, pics of the 24yo in a hot nursing uniform. 
 

“Oh, sure thing bro.”

[Parliament 14236]

7 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

I’m doing my part, trying to marry up a 24 yo nursing student !

rules

[tx 3 putt 76868]

55 minutes ago, Parliament said:

rules

 

[UT_OB1 2215]

2 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

Attractive no doubt.  But 24?….  You getting catfished?  Maybe it’s just the outfit in the first pic. 

[fattyflattie 4639]

11 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

I’m doing my part, trying to marry up a 24 yo nursing student !

Talk her into becoming a Dr. 

[tx 3 putt 76868]

24 minutes ago, UT_OB1 said:

Attractive no doubt.  But 24?….  You getting catfished?  Maybe it’s just the outfit in the first pic. 

No I’ve seen her DL 

[YGIFS 19449]

is the DL the part where their ass cheek curls up into the taint?  I love those dual landing spots.