ST. LOUIS–More than half of Generation X has less than $100,000 saved for retirement, even though half also believe they will need $500,000 or more to retire comfortable.
That’s according to a new survey released by Clever Real Estate.
Generation X, or “Gen X” for short, is the cohort of Americans born from 1965 to 1980.
“They have a reputation as ‘the forgotten generation’ between Boomers and Millennials,” Clever said in releasing its findings. “Many economic analyses of generations focus on boomers and millennials, primarily to contrast Millennials with their parents’ generation.”
With more Gen Xers approaching retirement age, it’s vital to look at how this “in-between” generation feels about retirement, Clever added.
The company noted that its prior research found 48% of retirees think they’ll outlive their current savings. If current retirees are feeling a financial crunch, it's important to investigate if younger generations are feeling it as well.
To find out how Gen X feels about their retirement finances and the possibility of retirement, Clever said it surveyed 1,000 Americans born from 1965 to 1980 about their personal finances and how that impacts their retirement plans. Read on to learn more about Gen X’s retirement outlook.
The Findings
Among the key findings:
- A majority of Gen Xers (56%) have less than $100,000 saved for retirement compared to the recommended $550,000 Americans need to retire comfortably.
- 22% of Gen X have nothing saved for retirement, and 20% have never actually saved for retirement.
- Gen X women are 53% more likely to have never saved for retirement than Gen X men.
- 58% of Gen X say they have less saved at their current age than they expected they would.
- Gen Xers who are married or in long-term partnerships are 20% more likely to currently save for retirement than their single peers.
- 69% of Gen Xers want to retire before age 65, but only 37% think they'll actually be able to retire by then.
- 1 in 5 Gen Xers (19%) aren't confident they'll be able to retire before 80.
- 1 in 10 Gen Xers (11%) believe they will never be able to retire.
- Just 4% of Gen Xers don't want to ever retire.
- Nearly 40% of Gen X aren't confident they'll be able to afford retirement.
- Almost 80% of Gen Xers report carrying some form of debt. 52% of those are carrying at least $10,000 in non-mortgage debt.
- Almost half of Gen X (49%) carries month-over-month credit card debt. Of those, a majority (55%) carries at least $5,000 in credit card debt.
- Gen X thinks it was easier for boomers to save money for retirement than their own generation.
- 44% of Gen X blames boomers for the poor economic state of the U.S.
- 60% of Gen X say they are stressed about their retirement savings.
The full survey can be found here.
Feeling the FOMO Fever? CUToday.info Has a Prescription
Are you missing out on the latest news in credit unions? Missing the trends and developments you need to be aware of? We can help. Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
And it’s free!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com