For its\u00a0current\u00a0financial worries,\u00a0Generation X blames inflation. And the COVID-19\u00a0pandemic. And the Great Recession of 2008. And the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It reads like a laundry list of economic setbacks. But Gen X has lived and worked (or not worked) through a parade of financial shocks, a series of downturns that largely define the generation, at least in financial terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A\u00a0recent\u00a0survey\u00a0by\u00a0Zety, the resume builder site,\u00a0asked 1,003 Gen X workers\u00a0to identify the\u00a0major economic events\u00a0that\u00a0had hampered their finances. Here\u2019s how they replied:\u00a0<\/p>\n
64% cited rising prices from elevated inflation over the past\u00a0few\u00a0years\u00a046%\u00a0blamed\u00a0the COVID-19 pandemic\u00a023%\u00a0invoked\u00a0the Great Recession\u00a0of 2008 and 2009\u00a0And 10% reached back to the dot-com bubble, which burst in the early 2000s\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what we\u2019re looking at here is a compounding effect: every few years, being hit by something,\u201d said\u00a0Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at\u00a0Zety.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Gen X, retirement reality bites<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Zety\u00a0survey is the latest of many reports to show Generation X struggling with its impending retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gen X\u00a0was\u00a0born between 1965 and 1980. Its oldest members are now 61, a year away from qualifying for Social Security.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just over half of Gen Xers surveyed said they fear they haven\u2019t saved enough for retirement. Nearly two-fifths expect to retire at age 68 or later,\u00a0or not\u00a0at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A\u00a0pervasive\u00a0economic\u00a0theory\u00a0suggests that Generation X has struggled more than the generations that preceded and followed it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many in Generation X entered the workforce\u00a0before or during\u00a0the dot-com bubble,\u00a0the tech-stock boom that went bust in 2000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several years later, many Gen Xers were in their prime earning years when the Great Recession hit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the prime of our adult life, we experienced a lost decade,\u201d said\u00a0Phil Battin, a wealth management adviser in Warrenville, Illinois, who is a Gen Xer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lifetime of financial setbacks<\/p>\n
Every generation suffered in\u00a0the Great Recession, but economic research suggests Gen X\u00a0suffered more than most.\u00e2\u0080\u00af\u00a0<\/p>\n
The financial turmoil of Generation X arguably \u201cgoes back even farther\u201d than the dot-com bubble, said John Faircloth, a private wealth adviser at Northwestern Mutual\u2019s\u00a0Riverwalk Wealth Advisors\u00a0in Tampa, Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many\u00a0older\u00a0Gen-Xers\u00a0emerged\u00a0from college during the recession of 1990 and 1991, which set a bleak tone for their careers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think about it sequentially, you had the recession in the 1990s, then you had a couple good years, and then we got wiped out by the\u00a0dot-coms, and then you had a couple good years, and then we got wiped out by the global financial crisis,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Faircloth, who is a Gen Xer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to account for some of that financial trauma that people have experienced in their lifetime, and\u00a0Gen X\u00a0have experienced a lot of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gen X came of age as the 401(k) arrived<\/p>\n
Generation X also came of age as the nation embraced a new retirement model, which called on workers to build savings in 401(k) accounts rather than rely on workplace pensions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The average Gen Xer started saving for retirement at age 32, according to the\u00a02026 Planning\u00a0&\u00a0Progress Study\u00a0from Northwestern Mutual. By contrast, the typical millennial started saving at 28, and the average Gen Zer at 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn retirement planning, that\u2019s not a small delay,\u201d said\u00a0Tiffani Potesta, chief commercial officer at Voya Investment Management.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gen X also expects to retire later than younger workers: at age 67, on average, according to Northwestern Mutual. The typical millennial plans to retire at 64, the average Gen Zer at 61.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By the time they retire, Gen\u00a0Zers\u00a0\u201ccould finish with twice as much\u201d retirement savings as Gen Xers because of their head start,\u00a0Potesta\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After all the\u00a0economic shocks, retirement experts say, it\u2019s not surprising that many Gen Xers feel unprepared for retirement.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not too late to prepare. Here are some tips for Gen X workers to shore up their retirement plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Max out your retirement saving\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanks to recent changes in federal law,\u00a0Gen Xers\u00a0who are approaching retirement age can\u00e2\u0080\u00afsave\u00e2\u0080\u00afmore than ever\u00e2\u0080\u00afin 401(k)\u00a0accounts.\u00e2\u0080\u00af\u00a0<\/p>\n
Any\u00e2\u0080\u00afemployee with a 401(k) plan can contribute as much as\u00e2\u0080\u00af$24,500\u00e2\u0080\u00afin 2026. Savers\u00e2\u0080\u00af50 or older can make additional\u00a0\u201ccatch-up\u201d\u00e2\u0080\u00afcontributions up to\u00e2\u0080\u00af$8,000,\u00e2\u0080\u00afraising the\u00e2\u0080\u00aftotal\u00a0contribution\u00e2\u0080\u00afto\u00e2\u0080\u00af$32,500.\u00e2\u0080\u00af Workers\u00e2\u0080\u00afages 60, 61, 62 and 63\u00e2\u0080\u00afhave an even higher\u00a0\u201csuper\u00e2\u0080\u00afcatch-up contribution\u201d\u00a0limit\u00e2\u0080\u00afof $11,250.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Make a retirement plan\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clearly,\u00a0Gen Xers are worried\u00e2\u0080\u00afabout retirement.\u00e2\u0080\u00afBut\u00a0they may\u00a0not\u00e2\u0080\u00afspend\u00e2\u0080\u00afenough\u00e2\u0080\u00aftime planning for\u00e2\u0080\u00afit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Only 29% of Americans engage in retirement planning on a regular basis,\u00a0according to\u00a0the Transamerica Center\u00a0for Retirement Studies, and only 31% work with professional financial advisers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone should have a written plan,\u201d Faircloth said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Work longer; claim Social Security later\u00a0<\/p>\n
Working even a year or two longer, and waiting\u00a0a few years to\u00a0take Social Security, can vastly improve your retirement prospects, retirement experts say.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Stanford University\u00e2\u0080\u00afstudy\u00e2\u0080\u00affound that delaying retirement by just three to six months has the same impact on retirement savings as raising your\u00a0401(k) contribution\u00a0rate by a full percentage point for 30 years.\u00e2\u0080\u00af\u00e2\u0080\u00af\u00a0<\/p>\n
And many economists\u00a0say\u00a0workers are generally better off if they\u00a0postpone claiming Social Security. Your monthly\u00a0benefit\u00a0checks get larger with every year you wait to claim them, from age 62 through 70.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: For its economic woes, Gen X still blames the Great Recession<\/p>\n
Reporting by Daniel de Vis\u00e9, USA TODAY \/ USA TODAY<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For its\u00a0current\u00a0financial worries,\u00a0Generation X blames inflation. And the COVID-19\u00a0pandemic. And the Great Recession of 2008. And the dot-com…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,5457,101,208891,3],"class_list":["post-838393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-consumer","tag-economy","tag-nation-world","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}