Reality bites for Gen X retirement
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
The Slacker generation might have been slacking off when it came to planning for retirement: Gen X consistently ranks in surveys as the least-prepared group for when they stop earning.
Why it matters: The first members of Gen X were born in January 1965, which means they turn 59½ this month and can start withdrawing money from 401(k) and other retirement accounts without paying a penalty.
The big picture: As Gen Xers get older, they are getting increasingly worried about looming financial problems in retirement.
- 49% of Gen Xers in a 2023 Natixis survey said they worry that retirement may not be an option — up significantly from 42% in 2021.
- Fully 50% of them say their main retirement planning mechanism is to avoid thinking about it altogether.
What they found: American savers are broadly constructive when it comes to their preparedness for retirement, with 68% of them saying they're on track to retire with the lifestyle they want.
- Gen X is the outlier, lagging all other savers.
- BlackRock's findings echo a similar March 2024 survey from Allianz, which found 62% of Gen Xers saying they were confident they could support their lifestyle in retirement — compared to 82% of boomers and 77% of millennials.
By the numbers: In a new BlackRock survey shared exclusively with Axios, only 40% of Gen Xers say they use a financial adviser for retirement planning, compared to 54% for millennials and boomers and even 47% for Gen Z.
- That's despite the fact that their savings are significantly larger: The median reported is $150,000, double the $75,000 that millennials said they'd saved and far more than the $25,000 in Gen Z accounts.
- Those numbers align with the Allianz survey showing 35% of Gen Xers saying they currently have a financial professional, compared to 46% of millennials and 54% of boomers.
Between the lines: While savers in general became more confident in their retirement after the bull market of 2023, Gen X saw the smallest increase in confidence.
- Part of that is the steady decline of pensions. Only 25% of Gen Xers have any kind of defined benefit pension, per the Social Security Administration, compared to 39% of "leading boomers" (born between 1946 and 1955) and 32% of "trailing boomers (born between 1956 and 1964).
The bottom line: "When you get to a certain age, you become much more focused on retirement, and how many more years you can work, and how many more years you want to work," BlackRock retirement expert Anne Ackerley tells Axios.
- Gen X, it seems, is reaching that age right around now.
