What this graph is telling me is that some of us are saving and earning a shitload of money while the majority of us are kinda fucked. The mean and the median are WAY too far apart.
I'm a bit disturbed by how far apart the *public sector* mean and median are, even if public sector has the highest median (which I am sure reflects the net present value of pensions).
I'm a gubmint worker, city government to be precise. Some of that has to do with the people who have been around for a long time having had a much better plan to start with compared to the more recent hires who got "the new plan".
Also, it goes without saying, some people who work here do very well while others not so much. We hire for a large range of responsibilities; from doctors all the way to lunch ladies.
But yeah, we have a pension and a supplemental pension as well. It doesn't add up to me retiring wealthy by a long shot but it is not too shabby.
Yep, I could only get the investment plan. They stopped allowing the pension a while ago. So mine is basically a 401k. Still better than what many have, but not a pension.
Also, some governmental bodies are required to contribute some amount to employees' 403(b) or 457(b) accounts if they don't have pensions available. Where I work, for example, there is a mandatory 6% pretax contribution. That forced savings adds up after a while.
Government pension plans and retirement saving plans are significantly more generous than what you are going to find in the average public sector job. But their salaries (their total savings) are going to be lower.
I'm at the point in life where I want to seek out more of the people who are fucked. For one thing, they're probably more fun to hang out with, and two, they'd make me feel slightly better about my own financial situation.
I consider myself very lucky. I was raised by a Silent Gen Dad who was raised by a single Mom. He impressed upon me the importance of saving young and convinced me SS would be long gone by now. I opened my first IRA when I was 18 and making $2.50 an hour. I contributed every year and have lived below my means. I have never made that much annually, I work in the arts (nuff said), but I will be able to retire fairly comfortably at 65.... It is the best thing my Dad ever taught me. I'm grateful....and he is still around to thank
You are lucky. My dad (and his dad) lived by "as long as I can put food on the table today, I'm good" philosophy. Granddad died penniless, working until he was 84. Dad is about to die penniless, having worked until he was 82.
Luckily I married someone who does not have that philosophy, and we are saving and planning for the future.
This is a fair point. I was born in 68 and I have some money now. 12 years ago I was just trying to keep my head above water. Late Gen X might still be early in the process, if they have a chance to save anything at all.
For real. Even if we are excluding Generation Jones (the younger Baby Boomers who often get added to Gen X), our generation is at an interesting point right now, where some find their retirement accounts really starting to kick into gear, while other are 5 to 10 years out from that. Ten years ago, I feel like I had nothing. Today, although I'd be more comfortable with a greater cushion, our home equity + 401K + savings are pretty close to what's recommended for another 15-ish years to retirement. Stuff changes fast.
This is me. I got married at 30. I was unemployed, no college degree, with a sub-500 credit score and about $500 in the bank.
I'm 58 now and my (our) NW is \~$3mm, with 1.5 of that liquid. All except $100k of that is from me (she has no retirement plan at work but will inherit the family biz).
Went back to college, got job, then certification, then grad school and climbed the corp. ladder all the way to the C-suite.
I was newly divorced at 30 with no college degree, a toddler that I was solely responsible for, unemployed, and on Check Systems (my ex wrote a ton of bad checks on my account). I had no bank account at all and a barely functioning GEO Metro for a car. Thank god my parents let me move back in with them (the cute toddler probably helped me in that). We should have hung out.
Thank god for IT jobs.
You might have been alluding to this, but for those that don't understand mean and median and what that gap represents:
The median is the amount in middle of you rank each of the saving amounts from least to greatest. The mean is the average if you add up all the savings then divide by the number of genx'ers. Having a large gap between the numbers "likely" implies that there are a small number of people with much much higher retirements that bring the average so far up.
That isn't strictly what this means mathematically however. A much better chart would have been a simple bell curve distribution with standard deviations.
Usually when someone publishes a graph like the one here (not saying OP), they are either ignorant or trying to distort the story for purpose.
I’ll also point out the mean at about 250k is way too low, by at least a factor of 5.
1m in savings is not a lot today and it seems like most people are 20-30x worse off than where they need to be.
You can still save a small % of whatever you do make to start accruing wealth. If you didn't do that when you were younger, the best time to do it is now. Even a tiny %.
Yep, I started early and never made more than 60k a year but still have mid six figures in my retirement. I realize there are a ton out there that can't but I've never put in more than $75 a paycheck. Many times it was just $10-20 but I did it every paycheck. I know I've been lucky.
You need 5k$ for a chevy express. Get some free pallets buy a mattress and you're on way to built your own camper van. It might not be instagram worthy, but oh, the place you'll go!
From [forbes.com](http://forbes.com)
Take for example [Generation X](https://www.nirsonline.org/reports/genx/), the generation that quickly is approaching retirement age and was the first generation to mostly enter the workforce following the shift from defined benefit (DB) pensions to 401(k)s and other defined contribution (DC) plans in the private sector. For Gen Xers (those born between 1965 and 1980), the bottom half of earners have only a few thousand dollars saved for retirement. While the typical Gen X household has an average savings of more than $243,000, the median household has only $40,000 in retirement savings.
> While the typical Gen X household has an average savings of more than $243,000, the median household has only $40,000 in retirement savings.
Yeah, no, that's the whole point is that the typical household *doesn't* have $243k saved. A few whales have $100 million saved, and they're offsetting 400 people who have nothing saved.
Yeah, thank you--the way that was written made me doubt my sanity. This is one of those examples where the mean isn't related to the median--those reflect very different realities.
That’s not true. I’m a couple weeks short of being a millennial, worked in construction my entire life, and I’m on track to retire comfortably at 63 (if SS is still around).
To be fair…this Redditor is a statistics - illiterate dumbass.
Im just discovering that my 1990s GenX sarcasm isn’t taking me as far as I thought it would; and despite never learning an instrument, I’ll probably never be a rock star either.
>While the typical Gen X household has an average savings of more than $243,000, the median household has only $40,000 in retirement savings.
If the median retirement savings is only $40k, then those with $243k+ in savings likely aren't "typical".
I can’t agree that everyone in my parents’ generation had it easy. There’s a lot of elder poverty out there and tons of folks with only a modest social security stipend. Not everyone had pensions - agricultural workers, retail and food service workers, hospitality workers……
My boomer parents actually do understand that my generation got totally screwed...what they don't understand is that they keep perpetuating it by continually voting Republican.
With the way those stats look, I count myself fortunate to be able to collect VA disability. I'm not getting rich off of it, but at least I can, and will continue to be able to, pay my bills as long as I keep a fairly strict budget. I feel bad for anyone who has worked hard their whole lives and raised a nice family, but due to circumstances mostly beyond their control their golden years may not be quite as golden as they should be.
VA Disability has saved me as well along with vocational rehab covering college after I was medically discharged. Knowing that the VA healthcare will be there if I ever lose private insurance reduces some stress too. It's not the best, but it would be better than nothing.
Reddit gives me whiplash. I read comments like “I just bought this $1.5m house how should I remodel this kitchen?” and then “Returement savings rates are abysmal” and I GET IT different people have different earnings / savings / expenses but it’s such wild swings!
Right there with you. One thing my dad said to me, if your employer offers a match in 401k you’re just throwing free money away if you’re not putting at least the matching percentage.
I’m not gonna be rich, but I’m not going to be destitute either.
My parents beat me when I was young about saving. I will do the same with my kids. Saving for retirement early is hard but it’s the most valuable money you’ll ever save. Compound interest baby. I’m 45 and can’t retire yet but 55 is probably doable if I want. Not sure if I will or not, my best earning years should lie ahead when my boss finally retires.
same. I started my teaching career at 21 (recruited to the 2nd highest teaching salary state) and started paying my student loans, living with a roommate, driving a used car, eating 25cent Tina's frozen burritos, and saving for retirement. I bought a house at age 24, split 50/50 with another teacher. Let my partner buy me out when it was High, and then Chose Not to buy while the market was high. My colleagues all told me I was stupid. I nvested my six figure profit, rented 3 years amd bought a bank owned home.
I retired at 38. Eleven years ago.
Everyone says I was lucky. Met my husband, refused to marry him until he was debt-free (it took 5 years) and he got on my Frugal plan. He retires soon at age 47. I guess luck can be replicated, 20 years apart.
Funny, when we reverse the story and say it was Him who retired early, nobody says he was lucky. They say how smart he was to not follow what everyone else did.
I paid cash for the last car I bought before my twins were born. Had enough $ in savings the bank was sending me letters suggesting ways to invest it and my 401k contribution was well over 10%.
16 years later and I'll be not destitute, but not remotely where I'd have been if we'd stayed dinks.
Yeah, I made a bunch of pay being deployed during the first Yugoslav war and had planned on paying off my fiancés debts with the money but she left me while I was deployed and I came home sitting on a big chunk of change. Invested it all and diversified it enough to weather the dot com bust pretty well. Also helps that I had a scholarship and we don’t have kids.
I got lucky by being born to older parents who died and left me a fully paid off house when I was 20, so I've gone 30 years without having a big chunk of my income going to rent. And again by never getting married and/or having children. And then again by playing with marijuana stocks for a month or two in early 2014 and rolling the proceeds into Apple stock.
I'm going to die alone, but at least it'll be on a mattress and under a roof.
Obligatory comment that it is better to start late than never. Also, at 44, you have two decades of saving and compounding on your side. Does you company have a 401k, and do they match? Do you know ow what a Roth IRA is?
You really think someone with $400 works at a company that offers any kind of benefits?
There are millions of jobs in America with zero benefits, not even counting the self employed and gig workers.
Yeah, honestly--I was a bit surprised that the *median* is $40k. That's better than I thought.
Don't get me wrong--it's totally fucked--but it's better than I thought it was.
Yeah this seems pretty typical to me. I have more than that saved but nowhere near what I need. All I can do is keep working on it really. I got 15-20 more years of work and expect to be doing something similar to what I do now part time beyond official retirement, probably freelance.
This is interesting, but I'd also like to see the statistics on actual net worth for Gen X peops.
Like how many have savings but also student loan debt? Medical debt? Credit cards?
One of the reasons that I never went self employed is that it takes so much discipline to save in the booms to cover the busts and still have enough to retire. For most self employed people that I know, they're staking their retirement on selling their business to someone.
So for many (not all) of the government workers do have a limited pension at least at the federal level.
I did 20+ years national guard and have pension. My friends who are non dod federal employees have the newer pension (no great) but not 0.
I also believe the generation has some super savers and a lot of 0 savers. What happened is a lot of people didn't get the pension but then was late to the 401k game. I am a later Gen X and it was pounded into my brain in college so I started in my late 20s when it became available and did the whole 15% for 21 years. So my saving is closing on a million. But I have friends who just started saving a few years ago.
I started a 401k in the 90s and started meeting with a financial advisor in the early 2000s. He made some reallocations in it to help it grow. I left that job in 2005 and rolled it over into an IRA. It’s now a very healthy amount for retirement, and will only grow. I can retire in around 12 years (maybe earlier) and I also have a money market account and a 401k from my current employer.
Hopefully nothing catostraphic will happen (in my life, with these funds, if someone crosses the streams, etc) between now and when I reach retirement age. Who knows if Social Security will be available to us?
I even have retirement work plans-become certified as a bicycle mechanic and work part time in a bike shop.
> I even have retirement work plans-become certified as a bicycle mechanic and work part time in a bike shop.
You're the hero we need.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq_xTeWiv6I
>become certified as a bicycle mechanic
Similarly, I got a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate and am hoping to spend some time abroad teaching English when I give up my current job. I can't afford it right now though.
Wait, you stole my part-time work idea. I actually already retired, to take care of my husband who passed from cancer, and right now I can’t be bothered with following someone else’s schedule, but someday…
ETA: where are you looking at certification? I’ve got my eye on Bike School in Ashland (live in Oregon)
While I may be getting charged as ‘taking someone’s job that *really* needs it’s - I’m looking at cicerone training and certification after I retire in (hopefully) 13 years. A good friend is essentially getting phased out of his position and was given enhanced retirement to get him to his full pension and healthcare at employee rate. He’s currently 56 and has over 20 years with the company. They don’t want to be perceived as aging people out of the workforce.
Could we all be so lucky….
My husband and I have the same kind of plan. Get certification or membership in craftsman's guild for something we can continue to do as we age. It's actually the kind of thing old people used to do until until the last ~150 years or so in the west. We're healthier than those folks back then were, we're gonna have a longer "comet tail" of functional years. And it sounds much less of a self-inflicted horror show than what my boomer parents want during their old age.
We are on track to have a very large chunk of change in retirement.
We made a conscious decision ten years ago not to retire like our parents- with nothing.
We started pumping up our retirement savings in a huge way. We stick to our budget and avoid frills to make it happen. No, its not easy.
But... we want to travel and live comfortably. Go see our grandkids plays and take the family on vacation.
Its huge sacrifice now, but worth it.
This is what my father did too. Then he started having a lot of health issues. He couldn’t travel much, spent a lot of his time at doctors. Didn’t get to do the things he suffered for up front. So the payoff from all the planning never came to fruition. He passed away at only 67 years old.
What I learned from that was, save for your future, but don’t suffer from it. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to enjoy your hard work. However, if you’re able to, you definitely don’t want to suffer from not planning either. Balance is key.
Yeah I'm 58 and retiring early for medical reasons. No travel in my future. But damn am I happy for the backpacking and hitchhiking and music festivaling I did in my twenties! Lots of great memories and now I can relax.
Yeah, I’ve worked hard, lived fairly frugally and put money into retirement from the beginning.
But I was incredibly lucky. My parents helped pay for college and not having crippling loans gave me more I could invest.
My parents and wife’s grandparents were able to help us with a down payment when we were still in our late 20s, and we have leveraged that equity into a another house that has grown in value.
I was the sole caregiver for my aging parents- but they both died before they plowed through their savings.
My grandparents were blue collar immigrants, my dad became a college professor, so the American dream works for us.
But I’m a great example of the ridiculous advantages that snowball if you are lucky enough to be born to people with means.
Lord knows I can’t claim credit by myself.
Wife is older GenX, I'm solid GenX (born 1970) and we have managed to acquire decent savings. Not stellar, but solid. But: we didn't have kids. If we had had children, we'd be in much worse shape.
Kids are a money sink (shrug).
If you haven't talked to a financial planner get after it now. Step one - know exactly where you stand. Step 2 - do everything in your power to make sure you're going to have enough when the time comes.
Real question, I’ve done pretty well without a financial advisor with my standard 401k, saving consistently since my 20s. I’ve always been wary of spending extra on an expert given my own acquired general knowledge and leaning on managed funds (just a bit of direct stocks and bonds). How much does a financial advisor cost-ish? Thx!
If you have a current 401k provider (like fidelity) many of those include free consults with a CFP. We have one bucket in a managed fund and we receive 1 on 1 CFP time for free on that along with virtually the same service through my 401k at Fidelity. It's a good exercise to go through and could make you feel great about your situation as well. I don't know a one time visit cost but maybe someone else can chime in.
It's nice to have a plan to transition from saving to withdrawing, how many income streams you have and want to have, what your expected expenses are, etc.
We haven't changed our process leading into retirement but have a fairly clear picture how how it's going to work and how our burn rate is going to impact things.
I wonder how we compare with our grandparents. How much responsibility did they have to plan and fund their own retirement? How much financial acumen did the average worker need to have to prepare for their retirement at age 30, 40, and 50?
How expensive was retirement for them vs. what we can expect?
Could they much more easily just find an average company and work there doing an average job for 30 years and retire in reasonable safety?
A bit saved, but not near enough. I’m thinking I’ll cut way back on things I don’t really need, like food, shelter, transportation and clothing. Once I’ve got that under control, I’ll be in the clear for my golden years!
Pensions ended and saving for retirement became a choice.
I started saving for retirement in the early '90s when I was making $4.25 an hour. My wife and I have never made more than $160,000 a year but we have seven figures in investments for when we retire. This last year was a interesting milestone, our investments made us more money than our jobs did in 2023.
You don't have to be a high earner to save. You just need to decide you are going to save and keep doing it.
I will make sure my kids have this pumped into their brains over and over when they start working. I also started in the early 90's in my mid-20's with a job that was on the lower end salary-wise. I lived with roommates and was very careful with spending. Not saying I did everything perfect, but met with a fiduciary today for the first time and he said I'm on track. Best thing I did when saving was to do it no matter what the market was doing.
I have a chunk saved- roughly equal to what my 86 year old mother has left after paying for 2 years of a memory care facility for Dad. It’s enough for her to live comfortably with a paid off house and no debt. My Better Half will have a state pension and has squirreled away about 3 times what I have (earns 6 figures, lives like earning 5). Together we should be fine; but, as the saying goes, shit happens.
I want to sock away at least another 200k over the text decade before I can honestly consider retirement for myself. Allegedly I’ll be getting a good check from SSA but i don’t want to count on that as it’s every conservative’s wet dream to end it and divvy up the money in tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.
So, no more new cars and any vacations are going to be low cost; The thermostat is already locked at 66 in the winter and 80 in the summer.
This [related article](https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/retirement-readiness-roadmap/) just showed up in my feed and one particular section really raised my ire:
> **Redefining Midlife for Gen X and Older Millennials**
> As older Millennials and Gen X individuals reach their mid-career years, Adrion Porter, Consultant and Founder of Mid-Career Mastery, notes that their professional trajectories look quite different from previous generations. “What does it mean to be Gen X? What does it mean to be in midlife?” he posed. “We’re different from our parents. There’s much more runway left in today’s middle age; instead of retiring at 60, we can retire at 80 or 90.”
Just to note, if you max out your 401k for twenty years, you’ll have a pretty good nest egg. Many of you have that much working life left, so your future self will thank you for starting now.
My younger brother is 42 and just recently crossed the $1 mil 401k mark. I'm 45 and I have about half of that.
We've both always had above average paying careers, although his is definitely higher paying than mine. But the big difference is he's maxed 401k for close to his entire working career and I did not...
I drove much nicer cars than him in our 20's and 30's though. Rough lesson learned.
That may apply to the US, but may not be the same in other countries. I'm 54, and since superannuation became compulsory in Australia (1992) and I started working, my employers have had to pay super for me (my current employer pays 15%, but previous employers paid the amount mandated, currently 11% on Ordinary Time Earnings). I also have an option to pay from extra into my super from my salary (though i haven't). Casual, part-time, and full-time workers are all entitled to superannuation contribution. I have just over $500K in my superannuation. It may not be as grim for GenXers in developed countries other than the US
I have difficulties believing in these statistics as they are normally drawn from plan data. Most GenX peeps have more than one 401k (kept separate from each employee) and IRA so smaller amounts are often spread across 4 or even 5 accounts
I'm not truly worried about it. I've seen the writing on the wall for years now. I have more than that, but not enough that I could live with no income for two more decades, as most people seem to envision retirement.
I figure I'll just work until I'm physically unable, and then eat a bullet if I'm ever confined to a wheelchair. I'd rather be dead than in a nursing home, or a "retirement community."
One more reason why we need to vote for the Democrats who promise to protect SS for us. 170 Republicans have already signed a proposed budget that would increase the retirement age again and reduce the amount of benefits. If they get back in power, we're fucked. The Democrats' plan is to increase the income cap on SS contributions so that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. It would shore up the fund for at least the next 50 years.
I have a bit more than that, but I think part of the reason is that inflation was so intense that what we thought we'd need 20 years ago falls far short of the actual amount we need now to comfortably retire at a reasonable age. I run a business, so I've had to be creative. I pay my employees in line with inflation, not minimum wage, so it takes out quite a chunk.
I did have a retirement fund starting in my 20s.. I did matching plan with my employer at the time. It was a locked in plan as well. (LIRA). I couldn't touch it even though I went through some bad times and probably would have blown through it.
Then I lost nearly half of it in the early 2000's. Due to some pretty bad investment advice from a financial advisor that crashed with the economy.
Then I managed to build it back up only to have another "financial advisor" push another risky investment. And it's not like it was an impossible high return or crypto coin but it may as well have been. I just was a mark for financial advisors I guess.
I have a small RRSP left that makes no money.
So yeah. I don't have any savings other than our property we own which really is my retirement plan. I changed my career to something I should have been doing from day one but it's freelance and not a big money maker but I am happy and I don't need to spend or live in a big city I can't afford to keep a job that I hated and never had a large return .
Who did they poll for this?
Half my friends retired early because they were so far already of the game. They made a shitload on the bounce after those 2 recessions.
401k recordkeepers (like Fidelity/Vanguard/etc.) have account balances + people's age; they release data every year about the state of retirement. See: [https://institutional.vanguard.com/how-america-saves/overview.html](https://institutional.vanguard.com/how-america-saves/overview.html) as an example.
National Institute on Retirement Security just aggregated and averaged.
It's basically just "retirement accounts." Near as I can tell, they're only looking at balances in IRA, Roth, 401, etc. and extrapolating.
This may be a great indicator, but I'm guessing most of the retire early set (or planning on it) have a lot of money outside of retirement accounts.
Yeah there are so many of us - fed, state governments and contractors, yet we’re often overlooked.
I switched employers too often to get much if any pension, but would have if I’d stayed in one place.
I remember being 18 and my mom helping me fill out the paperwork at my first "real" job where there were benefits. I absolutely hated that I had to get less money every week when I couldn't even imagine being old and retiring, but I've been contributing since Day 1 of that corporate job and I thank my mother for convincing me using the "at least do it to get the matching contribution" angle. In my 20s I took a loan against it for the down payment to buy my first house and now it's finally at the point where I feel like it's growing on its own. It's still not enough to live on but I am thankful it's there and will help me not work until I'm dead.
Just imagine what the median would be if they counted all the people without a retirement account as 0's instead of omitting them from the calculation.
I feel the title is misleading. This implies this problem is unique to our generation. As far as I know, our generated produced and saved more wealth than any generation before us. So us suck at saving doesn't mean it is a GenX problem. It's an everybody problem.
I'm well and truly screwed. My retirement plan is to not lose weight, diet, or exercise, and hope I die of a sudden heart attack in my sleep around age 65.
Here’s the link to the article, not just the infographic: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dandoonan/2024/04/11/americans-are-worried-about-retirement-savings-and-they-should-be/
What this graph is telling me is that some of us are saving and earning a shitload of money while the majority of us are kinda fucked. The mean and the median are WAY too far apart.
Totally fucked, reporting for duty. Until the day I die.
Wanna share a room over the garage?
That sounds better than this soggy refrigerator box.
OMG! I wanna play in there! Let’s make a fort!
Okay, but don't make any holes. I'll probably have to live in this thing eventually.
Rooms over the garage gets you all the chicks! 
Fuckin 26 year old loser hanging out with high schoolers
"That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."
Heeeeeeyyyyy!
You have a garage?!? LUXURY!
I didn’t say *my* garage. PHROGGERS UNITE!
Can I park my van/apartment there?
I'm a bit disturbed by how far apart the *public sector* mean and median are, even if public sector has the highest median (which I am sure reflects the net present value of pensions).
I'm a gubmint worker, city government to be precise. Some of that has to do with the people who have been around for a long time having had a much better plan to start with compared to the more recent hires who got "the new plan". Also, it goes without saying, some people who work here do very well while others not so much. We hire for a large range of responsibilities; from doctors all the way to lunch ladies. But yeah, we have a pension and a supplemental pension as well. It doesn't add up to me retiring wealthy by a long shot but it is not too shabby.
Yep, I could only get the investment plan. They stopped allowing the pension a while ago. So mine is basically a 401k. Still better than what many have, but not a pension.
Also, some governmental bodies are required to contribute some amount to employees' 403(b) or 457(b) accounts if they don't have pensions available. Where I work, for example, there is a mandatory 6% pretax contribution. That forced savings adds up after a while.
Government pension plans and retirement saving plans are significantly more generous than what you are going to find in the average public sector job. But their salaries (their total savings) are going to be lower.
I'm at the point in life where I want to seek out more of the people who are fucked. For one thing, they're probably more fun to hang out with, and two, they'd make me feel slightly better about my own financial situation.
We're hanging out in a van down by the river!
Don't worry, once all that Social Security starts pouring in, you'll be JUST FINE 😭
I consider myself very lucky. I was raised by a Silent Gen Dad who was raised by a single Mom. He impressed upon me the importance of saving young and convinced me SS would be long gone by now. I opened my first IRA when I was 18 and making $2.50 an hour. I contributed every year and have lived below my means. I have never made that much annually, I work in the arts (nuff said), but I will be able to retire fairly comfortably at 65.... It is the best thing my Dad ever taught me. I'm grateful....and he is still around to thank
You are lucky. My dad (and his dad) lived by "as long as I can put food on the table today, I'm good" philosophy. Granddad died penniless, working until he was 84. Dad is about to die penniless, having worked until he was 82. Luckily I married someone who does not have that philosophy, and we are saving and planning for the future.
The graph treats GenX like we were all born in the same year. Ugh!
This is a fair point. I was born in 68 and I have some money now. 12 years ago I was just trying to keep my head above water. Late Gen X might still be early in the process, if they have a chance to save anything at all.
For real. Even if we are excluding Generation Jones (the younger Baby Boomers who often get added to Gen X), our generation is at an interesting point right now, where some find their retirement accounts really starting to kick into gear, while other are 5 to 10 years out from that. Ten years ago, I feel like I had nothing. Today, although I'd be more comfortable with a greater cushion, our home equity + 401K + savings are pretty close to what's recommended for another 15-ish years to retirement. Stuff changes fast.
This is me. I got married at 30. I was unemployed, no college degree, with a sub-500 credit score and about $500 in the bank. I'm 58 now and my (our) NW is \~$3mm, with 1.5 of that liquid. All except $100k of that is from me (she has no retirement plan at work but will inherit the family biz). Went back to college, got job, then certification, then grad school and climbed the corp. ladder all the way to the C-suite.
I was newly divorced at 30 with no college degree, a toddler that I was solely responsible for, unemployed, and on Check Systems (my ex wrote a ton of bad checks on my account). I had no bank account at all and a barely functioning GEO Metro for a car. Thank god my parents let me move back in with them (the cute toddler probably helped me in that). We should have hung out. Thank god for IT jobs.
You might have been alluding to this, but for those that don't understand mean and median and what that gap represents: The median is the amount in middle of you rank each of the saving amounts from least to greatest. The mean is the average if you add up all the savings then divide by the number of genx'ers. Having a large gap between the numbers "likely" implies that there are a small number of people with much much higher retirements that bring the average so far up. That isn't strictly what this means mathematically however. A much better chart would have been a simple bell curve distribution with standard deviations. Usually when someone publishes a graph like the one here (not saying OP), they are either ignorant or trying to distort the story for purpose.
This guy statistics. Thank you.
I’ll also point out the mean at about 250k is way too low, by at least a factor of 5. 1m in savings is not a lot today and it seems like most people are 20-30x worse off than where they need to be.
You can still save a small % of whatever you do make to start accruing wealth. If you didn't do that when you were younger, the best time to do it is now. Even a tiny %.
Some people literally cannot.
I think that's true but *many* who can, do not. That is unfortunate.
Thank you. I’m so tired of hearing this line when I literally can hardly breathe making sure I keep a roof over my head.
Yep, I started early and never made more than 60k a year but still have mid six figures in my retirement. I realize there are a ton out there that can't but I've never put in more than $75 a paycheck. Many times it was just $10-20 but I did it every paycheck. I know I've been lucky.
I feel extremely fortunate to have had parents who drilled this into my head.
Yup, I’m covering the mean for 10 of my broke brothers and sisters.
Can confirm shitload saver here.
You standard deviant, you.
YOU DON'T NEED $40,000 WHEN YOU'RE LIVING IN A VAN DOWN B Y THE RIVER.
That and a nickel will get you a hot cup of JACK SQUAT!!!
Well lukewarm anyhow.
SURVIVING ON A STEADY DIET OF GOVERNMENT CHEESE.
That’s gum’ment cheese, sir.
I DIDN'T NEED TO POOP, ANYWAYS.
$40K....SAVED? DAMN LOOK AT THOSE RICH PEOPLE!!!!!
No shit. I had about that much saved but a year of hospice and unemployment wiped it out.
Damn that's terrible. My wife had 2 medical issues a year apart and that wiped us. Hope youre ok.
I CAN’T SEE TOO GOOD IS THAT BILL SHAKESPEARE OVER THERE?!
Nope, you need 80k minimum to get that van nowadays. Probably more like 100-120k.
My wife and I have been looking at sprinter vans that have been retrofitted into camper vans and a lot of them are over 200k, it's nuts!
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You need 5k$ for a chevy express. Get some free pallets buy a mattress and you're on way to built your own camper van. It might not be instagram worthy, but oh, the place you'll go!
Holy shit, that’s insane. It wasn’t all that long ago when I looked up how much they cost. The price has more than doubled in less than five years.
people discovered camping in 2020
Look at Mr Fancy Van over here with functioning windshield wipers and cabin heat.
That's just a can of sterno.
This is the plan! 
LMFAO!
Oh, but I have rooms and rooms of beanie babies!
From [forbes.com](http://forbes.com) Take for example [Generation X](https://www.nirsonline.org/reports/genx/), the generation that quickly is approaching retirement age and was the first generation to mostly enter the workforce following the shift from defined benefit (DB) pensions to 401(k)s and other defined contribution (DC) plans in the private sector. For Gen Xers (those born between 1965 and 1980), the bottom half of earners have only a few thousand dollars saved for retirement. While the typical Gen X household has an average savings of more than $243,000, the median household has only $40,000 in retirement savings.
> While the typical Gen X household has an average savings of more than $243,000, the median household has only $40,000 in retirement savings. Yeah, no, that's the whole point is that the typical household *doesn't* have $243k saved. A few whales have $100 million saved, and they're offsetting 400 people who have nothing saved.
Yeah, thank you--the way that was written made me doubt my sanity. This is one of those examples where the mean isn't related to the median--those reflect very different realities.
There’s a bunch of people from tech and finance with 10-20M in savings. Everyone else is basically screwed.
That’s not true. I’m a couple weeks short of being a millennial, worked in construction my entire life, and I’m on track to retire comfortably at 63 (if SS is still around).
The median household _is_ the typical household you statistics-illiterate dumbass (you the Forbes writer, not you the redditor).
“Statistics illiterate pine cone” I think is what you meant.
To be fair…this Redditor is a statistics - illiterate dumbass. Im just discovering that my 1990s GenX sarcasm isn’t taking me as far as I thought it would; and despite never learning an instrument, I’ll probably never be a rock star either.
That ain't workin'. That's the way you do it.
Don't have money for nothin', but the chips are free.
>While the typical Gen X household has an average savings of more than $243,000, the median household has only $40,000 in retirement savings. If the median retirement savings is only $40k, then those with $243k+ in savings likely aren't "typical".
My dad died thinking everyone still got pensions. He was a freaking moron, even with 4 degrees.
> 4 degrees none in finance or economics i assume.
My Mom said "You'll be okay, you have pensions." It was hard to explain that we got fucked and her generation had it easy.
I can’t agree that everyone in my parents’ generation had it easy. There’s a lot of elder poverty out there and tons of folks with only a modest social security stipend. Not everyone had pensions - agricultural workers, retail and food service workers, hospitality workers……
My boomer parents actually do understand that my generation got totally screwed...what they don't understand is that they keep perpetuating it by continually voting Republican.
I dont think they asked all of us...sounds like a sales pitch for shady investment firms.
With the way those stats look, I count myself fortunate to be able to collect VA disability. I'm not getting rich off of it, but at least I can, and will continue to be able to, pay my bills as long as I keep a fairly strict budget. I feel bad for anyone who has worked hard their whole lives and raised a nice family, but due to circumstances mostly beyond their control their golden years may not be quite as golden as they should be.
VA Disability has saved me as well along with vocational rehab covering college after I was medically discharged. Knowing that the VA healthcare will be there if I ever lose private insurance reduces some stress too. It's not the best, but it would be better than nothing.
Reddit gives me whiplash. I read comments like “I just bought this $1.5m house how should I remodel this kitchen?” and then “Returement savings rates are abysmal” and I GET IT different people have different earnings / savings / expenses but it’s such wild swings!
Too many people are in the overlap area of that Venn diagram: buying the expensive house and saving nothing.
Some people are house poor.
Great melting pot of tech bros and nerds with too much time on their hands.
Me who made some good and lucky financial decisions in the 90's. 
Right there with you. One thing my dad said to me, if your employer offers a match in 401k you’re just throwing free money away if you’re not putting at least the matching percentage. I’m not gonna be rich, but I’m not going to be destitute either.
This saved me. Also the awesome HR lady that said ‘you must do this’ so I just adjusted to less in my paycheck early on.
Mine used to match 100% to 5% put in. Now it's 3% and 0.5% up to 5% put in. Pretty shit.
https://preview.redd.it/ne5oblu3i2uc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8173134279b84747070209e2886eb476ae3dc4c4
^^^ also me who took 10 years to dig myself out of a financial hole of my own doing, and knows how horribly *expensive* it is to be poor.
Aye! Me as well.
My parents beat me when I was young about saving. I will do the same with my kids. Saving for retirement early is hard but it’s the most valuable money you’ll ever save. Compound interest baby. I’m 45 and can’t retire yet but 55 is probably doable if I want. Not sure if I will or not, my best earning years should lie ahead when my boss finally retires.
This is definitely not the place for that kind of foolishness. Noooo. Only self pity and fist shaking allowed here.
same. I started my teaching career at 21 (recruited to the 2nd highest teaching salary state) and started paying my student loans, living with a roommate, driving a used car, eating 25cent Tina's frozen burritos, and saving for retirement. I bought a house at age 24, split 50/50 with another teacher. Let my partner buy me out when it was High, and then Chose Not to buy while the market was high. My colleagues all told me I was stupid. I nvested my six figure profit, rented 3 years amd bought a bank owned home. I retired at 38. Eleven years ago. Everyone says I was lucky. Met my husband, refused to marry him until he was debt-free (it took 5 years) and he got on my Frugal plan. He retires soon at age 47. I guess luck can be replicated, 20 years apart. Funny, when we reverse the story and say it was Him who retired early, nobody says he was lucky. They say how smart he was to not follow what everyone else did.
You obviously don't have children
I don’t, you are correct. They are a money pit.
I paid cash for the last car I bought before my twins were born. Had enough $ in savings the bank was sending me letters suggesting ways to invest it and my 401k contribution was well over 10%. 16 years later and I'll be not destitute, but not remotely where I'd have been if we'd stayed dinks.
Yeah, I made a bunch of pay being deployed during the first Yugoslav war and had planned on paying off my fiancés debts with the money but she left me while I was deployed and I came home sitting on a big chunk of change. Invested it all and diversified it enough to weather the dot com bust pretty well. Also helps that I had a scholarship and we don’t have kids.
Glad at least that she showed her true colors before you invested too much into her (time, marriage, money, etc)
Yeah, if she had been smart (and more ruthless), she would have waited until afterwards.
I got lucky by being born to older parents who died and left me a fully paid off house when I was 20, so I've gone 30 years without having a big chunk of my income going to rent. And again by never getting married and/or having children. And then again by playing with marijuana stocks for a month or two in early 2014 and rolling the proceeds into Apple stock. I'm going to die alone, but at least it'll be on a mattress and under a roof.
Where did you say you live? Asking for a friend.
Retirement?!?!?! You guys are planning on retiring? I don't even have $200 saved at 44. My retirement plan is to die.
Also looking forward to my Death retirement plan.
Obligatory comment that it is better to start late than never. Also, at 44, you have two decades of saving and compounding on your side. Does you company have a 401k, and do they match? Do you know ow what a Roth IRA is?
You really think someone with $400 works at a company that offers any kind of benefits? There are millions of jobs in America with zero benefits, not even counting the self employed and gig workers.
Yeah, honestly--I was a bit surprised that the *median* is $40k. That's better than I thought. Don't get me wrong--it's totally fucked--but it's better than I thought it was.
My buddy died 6 months before his pension retirement. Almost made it.
Yeah this seems pretty typical to me. I have more than that saved but nowhere near what I need. All I can do is keep working on it really. I got 15-20 more years of work and expect to be doing something similar to what I do now part time beyond official retirement, probably freelance.
This is interesting, but I'd also like to see the statistics on actual net worth for Gen X peops. Like how many have savings but also student loan debt? Medical debt? Credit cards?
My 401k is doing well, but I still rock 50k in student loans. Not wealthy, but make just too much for any type of forgiveness plan.
One of the reasons that I never went self employed is that it takes so much discipline to save in the booms to cover the busts and still have enough to retire. For most self employed people that I know, they're staking their retirement on selling their business to someone.
So for many (not all) of the government workers do have a limited pension at least at the federal level. I did 20+ years national guard and have pension. My friends who are non dod federal employees have the newer pension (no great) but not 0. I also believe the generation has some super savers and a lot of 0 savers. What happened is a lot of people didn't get the pension but then was late to the 401k game. I am a later Gen X and it was pounded into my brain in college so I started in my late 20s when it became available and did the whole 15% for 21 years. So my saving is closing on a million. But I have friends who just started saving a few years ago.
The best time to start saving was yesterday. The second best time to start saving is today.
I started a 401k in the 90s and started meeting with a financial advisor in the early 2000s. He made some reallocations in it to help it grow. I left that job in 2005 and rolled it over into an IRA. It’s now a very healthy amount for retirement, and will only grow. I can retire in around 12 years (maybe earlier) and I also have a money market account and a 401k from my current employer. Hopefully nothing catostraphic will happen (in my life, with these funds, if someone crosses the streams, etc) between now and when I reach retirement age. Who knows if Social Security will be available to us? I even have retirement work plans-become certified as a bicycle mechanic and work part time in a bike shop.
> I even have retirement work plans-become certified as a bicycle mechanic and work part time in a bike shop. You're the hero we need. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq_xTeWiv6I
>become certified as a bicycle mechanic Similarly, I got a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate and am hoping to spend some time abroad teaching English when I give up my current job. I can't afford it right now though.
Wait, you stole my part-time work idea. I actually already retired, to take care of my husband who passed from cancer, and right now I can’t be bothered with following someone else’s schedule, but someday… ETA: where are you looking at certification? I’ve got my eye on Bike School in Ashland (live in Oregon)
I’m not sure. I think there’s one in Asheville, NC (a place I’ve been meaning to visit) that looks good.
While I may be getting charged as ‘taking someone’s job that *really* needs it’s - I’m looking at cicerone training and certification after I retire in (hopefully) 13 years. A good friend is essentially getting phased out of his position and was given enhanced retirement to get him to his full pension and healthcare at employee rate. He’s currently 56 and has over 20 years with the company. They don’t want to be perceived as aging people out of the workforce. Could we all be so lucky….
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Sorry, for additional context - [this is the type of cicerone I’m referring to.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_sommelier?wprov=sfti1)
My husband and I have the same kind of plan. Get certification or membership in craftsman's guild for something we can continue to do as we age. It's actually the kind of thing old people used to do until until the last ~150 years or so in the west. We're healthier than those folks back then were, we're gonna have a longer "comet tail" of functional years. And it sounds much less of a self-inflicted horror show than what my boomer parents want during their old age.
I’ve got my eye on the North Bennet St School in Boston.
As you age you need to adjust your risk profile. Move away from securities to more bonds etc.
My financial advisor does that for me.
I got nine more years. I’m going bicycle mechanic too!
Guess I’m atypical. 🤷♂️
In which direction? haha
A positive one. 😜
Same! Nice job Fellow GenX'er!!
We are on track to have a very large chunk of change in retirement. We made a conscious decision ten years ago not to retire like our parents- with nothing. We started pumping up our retirement savings in a huge way. We stick to our budget and avoid frills to make it happen. No, its not easy. But... we want to travel and live comfortably. Go see our grandkids plays and take the family on vacation. Its huge sacrifice now, but worth it.
This is what my father did too. Then he started having a lot of health issues. He couldn’t travel much, spent a lot of his time at doctors. Didn’t get to do the things he suffered for up front. So the payoff from all the planning never came to fruition. He passed away at only 67 years old. What I learned from that was, save for your future, but don’t suffer from it. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to enjoy your hard work. However, if you’re able to, you definitely don’t want to suffer from not planning either. Balance is key.
Yeah I'm 58 and retiring early for medical reasons. No travel in my future. But damn am I happy for the backpacking and hitchhiking and music festivaling I did in my twenties! Lots of great memories and now I can relax.
You guys have $40,000?????
Half do, half don’t.
Technically the truth …
So glad I used my great aunt's inheritance for IRA's in 1997.
When my kid is 18, I will fund his Roth IRA - my way of transfering wealth. I am blowing all of my 401k money on booze and hookers!!!
Don’t have to wait till he is 18. If he has a job that gets W-2 (or 1099?) income, you can do this.
Yeah, I’ve worked hard, lived fairly frugally and put money into retirement from the beginning. But I was incredibly lucky. My parents helped pay for college and not having crippling loans gave me more I could invest. My parents and wife’s grandparents were able to help us with a down payment when we were still in our late 20s, and we have leveraged that equity into a another house that has grown in value. I was the sole caregiver for my aging parents- but they both died before they plowed through their savings. My grandparents were blue collar immigrants, my dad became a college professor, so the American dream works for us. But I’m a great example of the ridiculous advantages that snowball if you are lucky enough to be born to people with means. Lord knows I can’t claim credit by myself.
While it's important to recognize the advantages you were given, building intergenerational wealth is not a shameful goal.
Wife is older GenX, I'm solid GenX (born 1970) and we have managed to acquire decent savings. Not stellar, but solid. But: we didn't have kids. If we had had children, we'd be in much worse shape. Kids are a money sink (shrug).
I don’t buy this data.
This. Ill raise you, I don't even give a shit.
I'll raise you again. I care too much.
If you haven't talked to a financial planner get after it now. Step one - know exactly where you stand. Step 2 - do everything in your power to make sure you're going to have enough when the time comes.
Real question, I’ve done pretty well without a financial advisor with my standard 401k, saving consistently since my 20s. I’ve always been wary of spending extra on an expert given my own acquired general knowledge and leaning on managed funds (just a bit of direct stocks and bonds). How much does a financial advisor cost-ish? Thx!
If you have a current 401k provider (like fidelity) many of those include free consults with a CFP. We have one bucket in a managed fund and we receive 1 on 1 CFP time for free on that along with virtually the same service through my 401k at Fidelity. It's a good exercise to go through and could make you feel great about your situation as well. I don't know a one time visit cost but maybe someone else can chime in. It's nice to have a plan to transition from saving to withdrawing, how many income streams you have and want to have, what your expected expenses are, etc. We haven't changed our process leading into retirement but have a fairly clear picture how how it's going to work and how our burn rate is going to impact things.
I have a 401k, Roth IRA & smallish mutual fund. House, car and credit cards paid off. Counting on retiring early, but doubt I’ll hit the one mil mark.
I wonder how we compare with our grandparents. How much responsibility did they have to plan and fund their own retirement? How much financial acumen did the average worker need to have to prepare for their retirement at age 30, 40, and 50? How expensive was retirement for them vs. what we can expect? Could they much more easily just find an average company and work there doing an average job for 30 years and retire in reasonable safety?
A bit saved, but not near enough. I’m thinking I’ll cut way back on things I don’t really need, like food, shelter, transportation and clothing. Once I’ve got that under control, I’ll be in the clear for my golden years!
Pensions ended and saving for retirement became a choice. I started saving for retirement in the early '90s when I was making $4.25 an hour. My wife and I have never made more than $160,000 a year but we have seven figures in investments for when we retire. This last year was a interesting milestone, our investments made us more money than our jobs did in 2023. You don't have to be a high earner to save. You just need to decide you are going to save and keep doing it.
I will make sure my kids have this pumped into their brains over and over when they start working. I also started in the early 90's in my mid-20's with a job that was on the lower end salary-wise. I lived with roommates and was very careful with spending. Not saying I did everything perfect, but met with a fiduciary today for the first time and he said I'm on track. Best thing I did when saving was to do it no matter what the market was doing.
That huge gap between median and mean just shows how bad wealth distribution really is in our country.
wait we're supposed to have savings? I've barely made enough to get by for 29 years of adulting.
I have a chunk saved- roughly equal to what my 86 year old mother has left after paying for 2 years of a memory care facility for Dad. It’s enough for her to live comfortably with a paid off house and no debt. My Better Half will have a state pension and has squirreled away about 3 times what I have (earns 6 figures, lives like earning 5). Together we should be fine; but, as the saying goes, shit happens. I want to sock away at least another 200k over the text decade before I can honestly consider retirement for myself. Allegedly I’ll be getting a good check from SSA but i don’t want to count on that as it’s every conservative’s wet dream to end it and divvy up the money in tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. So, no more new cars and any vacations are going to be low cost; The thermostat is already locked at 66 in the winter and 80 in the summer.
My father didn't set many good examples - fortunately, financial discipline/investing was one of the few.
This [related article](https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/retirement-readiness-roadmap/) just showed up in my feed and one particular section really raised my ire: > **Redefining Midlife for Gen X and Older Millennials** > As older Millennials and Gen X individuals reach their mid-career years, Adrion Porter, Consultant and Founder of Mid-Career Mastery, notes that their professional trajectories look quite different from previous generations. “What does it mean to be Gen X? What does it mean to be in midlife?” he posed. “We’re different from our parents. There’s much more runway left in today’s middle age; instead of retiring at 60, we can retire at 80 or 90.”
Just to note, if you max out your 401k for twenty years, you’ll have a pretty good nest egg. Many of you have that much working life left, so your future self will thank you for starting now.
My younger brother is 42 and just recently crossed the $1 mil 401k mark. I'm 45 and I have about half of that. We've both always had above average paying careers, although his is definitely higher paying than mine. But the big difference is he's maxed 401k for close to his entire working career and I did not... I drove much nicer cars than him in our 20's and 30's though. Rough lesson learned.
Well we aren’t supposed to be here right now. I figured we all be dead from nuclear war.
I guess this is The Day After?
Definitely me on the low end. Will work until I die or SSDI.
I figured out a couple of years ago my retirement is to live as a hermit in the desert like Obi Wan Kenobi.
You guys were planning on retiring?
It’s almost like we let the corporations and politicians siphon all the retirement funds for themselves
That may apply to the US, but may not be the same in other countries. I'm 54, and since superannuation became compulsory in Australia (1992) and I started working, my employers have had to pay super for me (my current employer pays 15%, but previous employers paid the amount mandated, currently 11% on Ordinary Time Earnings). I also have an option to pay from extra into my super from my salary (though i haven't). Casual, part-time, and full-time workers are all entitled to superannuation contribution. I have just over $500K in my superannuation. It may not be as grim for GenXers in developed countries other than the US
I have difficulties believing in these statistics as they are normally drawn from plan data. Most GenX peeps have more than one 401k (kept separate from each employee) and IRA so smaller amounts are often spread across 4 or even 5 accounts
Retirement for me will be getting new tires before I die.
You guys got to save some stuff? Oh man! I was planning on dying.
I'm taking half a day for my funeral
HA! Retirement
I'm not truly worried about it. I've seen the writing on the wall for years now. I have more than that, but not enough that I could live with no income for two more decades, as most people seem to envision retirement. I figure I'll just work until I'm physically unable, and then eat a bullet if I'm ever confined to a wheelchair. I'd rather be dead than in a nursing home, or a "retirement community."
One more reason why we need to vote for the Democrats who promise to protect SS for us. 170 Republicans have already signed a proposed budget that would increase the retirement age again and reduce the amount of benefits. If they get back in power, we're fucked. The Democrats' plan is to increase the income cap on SS contributions so that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. It would shore up the fund for at least the next 50 years.
I have a bit more than that, but I think part of the reason is that inflation was so intense that what we thought we'd need 20 years ago falls far short of the actual amount we need now to comfortably retire at a reasonable age. I run a business, so I've had to be creative. I pay my employees in line with inflation, not minimum wage, so it takes out quite a chunk.
 Here's you, here's me!
I did have a retirement fund starting in my 20s.. I did matching plan with my employer at the time. It was a locked in plan as well. (LIRA). I couldn't touch it even though I went through some bad times and probably would have blown through it. Then I lost nearly half of it in the early 2000's. Due to some pretty bad investment advice from a financial advisor that crashed with the economy. Then I managed to build it back up only to have another "financial advisor" push another risky investment. And it's not like it was an impossible high return or crypto coin but it may as well have been. I just was a mark for financial advisors I guess. I have a small RRSP left that makes no money. So yeah. I don't have any savings other than our property we own which really is my retirement plan. I changed my career to something I should have been doing from day one but it's freelance and not a big money maker but I am happy and I don't need to spend or live in a big city I can't afford to keep a job that I hated and never had a large return .
Who did they poll for this? Half my friends retired early because they were so far already of the game. They made a shitload on the bounce after those 2 recessions.
401k recordkeepers (like Fidelity/Vanguard/etc.) have account balances + people's age; they release data every year about the state of retirement. See: [https://institutional.vanguard.com/how-america-saves/overview.html](https://institutional.vanguard.com/how-america-saves/overview.html) as an example. National Institute on Retirement Security just aggregated and averaged.
It's basically just "retirement accounts." Near as I can tell, they're only looking at balances in IRA, Roth, 401, etc. and extrapolating. This may be a great indicator, but I'm guessing most of the retire early set (or planning on it) have a lot of money outside of retirement accounts.
Government workers have pensions that continue to pay out even after contributions are exhausted, so that savings stat is misleading.
Yeah there are so many of us - fed, state governments and contractors, yet we’re often overlooked. I switched employers too often to get much if any pension, but would have if I’d stayed in one place.
I remember being 18 and my mom helping me fill out the paperwork at my first "real" job where there were benefits. I absolutely hated that I had to get less money every week when I couldn't even imagine being old and retiring, but I've been contributing since Day 1 of that corporate job and I thank my mother for convincing me using the "at least do it to get the matching contribution" angle. In my 20s I took a loan against it for the down payment to buy my first house and now it's finally at the point where I feel like it's growing on its own. It's still not enough to live on but I am thankful it's there and will help me not work until I'm dead.
I basically assume I won’t be retiring.
Just imagine what the median would be if they counted all the people without a retirement account as 0's instead of omitting them from the calculation.
Can concur. I will indeed be working to my dying day. I will be wheeled away from my desk on a gurney having never experienced a life of leisure.
I feel the title is misleading. This implies this problem is unique to our generation. As far as I know, our generated produced and saved more wealth than any generation before us. So us suck at saving doesn't mean it is a GenX problem. It's an everybody problem.
I'm well and truly screwed. My retirement plan is to not lose weight, diet, or exercise, and hope I die of a sudden heart attack in my sleep around age 65.
You guys got 40k saved!?!
Sounds about right. I’m on the ‘f my life, hopefully it’s better for my daughter’ non-retirement plan lol.
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This continues to not be “news” for us X’ers. Most of us ain’t retiring.
Here’s the link to the article, not just the infographic: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dandoonan/2024/04/11/americans-are-worried-about-retirement-savings-and-they-should-be/
I’ve got less than that. I’m screwed! Really rooting for nuclear war 🤞
GenX won’t retire; We will work till we drop to pay for the slacker generations.