- Many Gen Xers are caring for both their children and parents, and it's hurting retirement savings.
- Nationwide found that 56% of Gen X investors financially supported either their parents or their kids.
- The financial burden of supporting two groups has some Gen Xers doubting if they'll retire at all.
Steve Mullen, 54, is being pulled three ways.
He and his wife are caregivers for each of their mothers, which has required them to pitch in up to 40 hours of caregiving a week and tens of thousands of dollars over the course of decades. At the same time, they are still supporting their college-age son, who needs help with housing and $25,000 for tuition every year. All the while, he runs his own PR business, and making more money is a "constant" concern.
At times, he said, the burden is extraordinary.
"It's incredibly stressful," he told Business Insider, adding that money was always a back-of-mind worry, despite being relatively financially stable. "I just pray we don't go into another one of these periods where my mother's in the hospital."
His situation is becoming increasingly common among Gen Xers — a generation sandwiched between their retiring parents and still-dependent children — and, more frequently, they need to support both groups at once. It is a dilemma that has put Gen X further behind in saving for retirement than other groups, financial planning experts told BI.
There are signs that the dual burden of needing to support kids and parents is becoming more common. A 2020 study from the AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving found that among Gen Xers who are taking care of a parent, around 50% also had a child under the age of 18. A study conducted by Nationwide showed that 56% of GenXers were financially supporting either their parents or their kids.
Gen Xers in caretaking roles were more likely to show signs of financial strain. Of those who were taking care of a child or a parent, 21% said they had a significant amount of debt, and 20% said they were unable to save for retirement, per the Nationwide study.
A separate survey of 35- to 60-year-olds conducted by Carewell found that 75% of those taking care of both a parent and a child said they struggled to save for retirement, while 63% said they lived paycheck to paycheck.
Gen Xers who spoke with BI said they doubted they would ever retire, mostly because they were set back by financial obligations related to caregiving.
Julie, a woman in her 50s from Ohio, said she had spent over $100,000 taking care of her mother over the course of 15 years. She has less than $70,000 saved for retirement, well below many financial advisors' recommendation of having about six times your annual salary saved by the time you hit 50.
"I'm exhausted financially, and, frankly, I didn't consider growing up I'd be the financial rock of my family," she said.
The sandwich generation
By some measures, Gen Xers are even more ill-prepared for retirement than baby boomers. A Prudential Financial survey found the median retirement savings for 55-year-olds was just under $48,000, with 18% having saved nothing at all as of last year.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of 55-year-olds said they were afraid of outliving their savings. That's the highest level among any age group in Prudential's 2024 survey, with 59% of 65-year-olds saying they worried they would outlive their savings.
Joe Wadford, a Bank of America economist, said Gen Xers are uniquely burdened by taking care of their parents and children simultaneously, largely because more children are living at home than in previous generations.
About 57% of men and 55% of women between the ages of 18 and 24 lived at home with their parents in 2022, according to US Census data published this year. That compares to 52% of men and 35% of women in that age range who were living with their parents in 1960.
Satayan Mahajan, the CEO of the financial advisory firm Datalign Advisory, said that his Gen X clients commonly cited caring for parents and children simultaneously as a reason for falling behind in preparing for retirement.
Market crashes during formative times in their career, such as during the early 2000s and the Great Financial Crisis, have also affected their ability to save.
"This sandwiched portion of Gen Xers are really in a lot of trouble. I mean, I have to say — and I don't want to sound so negative — but I think they're in a tough spot and they have a bunch of things that hit them pretty hard," Mahajan said.
And the outlook remains uncertain for Gen X. While boomers are estimated to pass on around $80 trillion in wealth, most of that money looks primed to head to millennials, not Gen X, Mahajan said.
"They're kind of in an awkward spot," he added. "And so there's a large swath of Gen Xers who may be in a bit of a lurch."
Uncertainty is also swirling around the availability of government retirement funds. Social Security could be depleted as soon as 2033, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated, when most Gen Xers are already retired or in their final decade of work.
The Prudential survey found that 40% of Gen Xers expect they'll have to work part time after they retire.
Brandon Goldstein, a financial planner at Prudential, said many Gen Xers still have time to catch up on their retirement savings, though he believes many could have to work longer than they want to.
More older Americans are already deciding to postpone their retirement. A Pew Research analysis found that 19 percent of adults 65 and over were still employed in 2023.
"For someone to be completely in a spot where they don't need to work again or they feel very comfortable, they're probably going to still have to work a little bit," Goldstein said.