You hear a lot about millennials being in a tight spot financially, but less about the generation sandwiched between them and the baby boomers: Generation X. The oldest Gen-Xers were born in the mid-1960s and are now in their early 50s; many other Xers are well into their 40s, and they’ve suffered the brunt of several economic downturns.
Gen-X, which started in 1965, could be characterized as the first post-New Deal generation. Xers hit adulthood at a time when Reaganomics, trickle-down economics and neoliberalism were eroding the protections brought about by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and enhanced by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. Gen-Xers have experienced much economic uncertainty during their working lives. The WWII and post-war workplace of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s—with its heavy unionization, generous benefits and pensions—has been foreign to them. Economically, Gen-X has a major stake in the November election, especially considering that 14 years from now in 2030, Gen-X will begin to turn 65.
Below are 10 daunting economic challenges Gen-X faces as it grows old.
1. For Generation X, savings rates are painfully low.