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August 07, 2014 at 08:51 AM
There’s an old curse that goes, “May you live in interesting times.” Baby boomers, according to a report from consulting firm Mercer, may be living in the most interesting times of all.
Boomers, that generation born between 1946 and 1964, are basically the subjects of a massive social experiment. Changes in the workplace, in employee benefits — everything from health care to retirement — and personal obligations, such as caring for dependent elders while trying to put children or grandchildren through college amid skyrocketing tuition costs, have given boomers another name: the Sandwich Generation.
Stuck financially between a rock and a hard place, many fear the approach of retirement. Either they lack the money to leave the workplace or know that, if they leave, the money will run out and they’ll be back.
When boomers entered the workplace, defined benefit plans were still pretty much de rigueur. Mercer cited research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute showing that in 1979, 28 percent of private-sector workers had a DB plan and 7 percent had only a defined contribution plan. By 2011, 31 percent of those in the private sector had only a DC plan, while a mere 3 percent had a DB plan.
That’s been a tough adjustment, leaving employees to figure out how to rethink their retirement strategy, something they haven’t been very good at.
Nor have their expectations made the adjustment from DB to DC. According to EBRI’s 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey, 24 percent of workers age 55 and over have saved less than $1,000 for retirement. And if that’s not depressing enough, a third of that age group still think they can retire comfortably on less than $250,000 in savings.
With the average 401(k) balance in 2011 only a little more than $58,991, according to EBRI, it’s plain to see that something’s got to give. Many boomers have saved so little that they find themselves sandwiched between two unattractive options: put off retirement or retire for a while and go back to work when the money runs out — a challenge in itself, considering today’s job market.
The Sandwich Generation faces another stressor in addition to the retirement dilemma. Those who serve as caregivers for elderly relatives have a higher rate of missed days at work, as well as causing an 8 percent increase in health care costs in the workplace compared with employees who are not caregivers.
And according to a study from the National Alliance for Caregiving, they are also significantly more likely to report depression, diabetes, hypertension, or pulmonary disease.
