The great baby-boomer retirement wave is upon us. According to Census Bureau data, 44% of boomers are at retirement age and millions more are soon to join them. By 2030, the largest generation to enter retirement will all be older than 65.
The general assumption is that boomers will have a comfortable retirement. Coasting on their accumulated wealth from three decades as America’s dominant economic force, boomers will sail off into their golden years to sip on margaritas on cruises and luxuriate in their well-appointed homes. After all, Federal Reserve data shows that while the 56 million Americans over 65 make up just 17% of the population, they hold more than half of America’s wealth — $96.4 trillion.
But there’s a flaw in the narrative of a sunny boomer retirement: A lot of older Americans are not set up for their later years. Yes, many members of the generation are loaded, but many more are not. Like every age cohort, there’s significant wealth inequality among retirees — and it’s gotten worse in the past decade. Despite holding more than half of the nation’s wealth, many boomers don’t have enough money to cover the costs of long-term care, and 43% of 55- to 64-year-olds had no retirement savings at all in 2022. That year, 30% of people over 65 were economically insecure, meaning they made less than $27,180 for a single person. And since younger boomers are less financially prepared for retirement than their older boomer siblings, the problem is bound to get worse.
As boomers continue to age out of the workforce, it’s going to put strain on the healthcare system, government programs, and the economy. That means more young people are going to be financially responsible for their parents, more government spending will be allocated to older folks, and economic growth could slow.
Because every boomer spent a lot of their working years in the biggest golden age of American history and had access to a ton of advantages (unions, pensions, cheap housing, the ability to get a good job without a college degree, etc.) that the generations after them did not have. Sure, there were a minority of exceptions: folks who got screwed by circumstances beyond their control, like becoming disabled or losing their pension due to employer bankruptcy, and obviously actual minority-minorities, who got locked out of most of the benefits because of institutional racism. But for typical white middle-class types, if they couldn’t manage to build up a nest egg despite living their life on a generational easy-mode it’s their own damn fault.
Was born at tail end of baby boom. Never had a single one of those things.
Yikes. That’s a pretty harsh take. Generalising like this is exactly the type of nonsense Republicans spout. Based on the article, these aren’t some insignificant numbers being talked about.