A Generation Rolls Its Eyes at Retirement
Northwestern Mutual found that many are resigned to being unprepared.
Generation X appears to be looking toward retirement and muttering, “Whatever.”
Members of Generation X were born from 1965 through 1980. The oldest are now 58; the youngest are turning 43.
About 55% predicted that they will be financially unprepared for retirement, and they were more likely to say they would be unprepared than members of any other age group, according to new survey results compiled by Northwestern Mutual.
Similarly, 38% said they had not even looked for information about retirement, let alone talked to a financial advisor, and they were more likely to have resisted retirement planning than members of any other age group.
What It Means
To succeed at selling to the more pessimistic members of Generation X, you might have to get them to take seriously the risk that life (at least, their life) will not end anytime soon.
The Survey
Northwestern Mutual gathered the data on Gen Xers’ views in a recent online survey of 2,740 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The sample included 640 Gen Xers.
The survey was similar to another Northwestern Mutual survey conducted in September 2022.
The analysts did not include comparable data for people ages 43 through 58 in earlier time periods.
The Generation
Members of Generation X were born after healthy U.S. women began using hormone-based contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, and before many younger baby boomer women began having their children.
The annual number of U.S. live births fell below 3.8 million in 1965, from more than 4 million in 1964. The number of live births settled below 3.2 million for a few years in the mid-1970s before starting to turn back up.
Because Generation X is smaller than the baby boomer generation and the millennial generation, it has tended to receive less attention from marketers, the news media and the general public than members of other generations.
Google Trends, a tool that lets users compare search activity, shows that, in the United States, over the past five years, the volume of activity for the term “generation x market” has been about one-half the level of activity for the term “millennial market.”
In the Google Trends finance category, U.S. search activity for “millennial generation” has been four times as high over the past five years as search activity for “generation x.”
More Gen X Data
Gen Xers in the Northwestern Mutual survey sample gave their financial security an average rating of just 5.6 on a 10-point scale.
That compares with an average rating of 6.1 for members of Generation Z, who are ages 11 through 26; 6.3 for millennials, who are ages 27 through 42; and 6.2 for the baby boomers, who are ages 59 through 76.
Gen Xers were about as likely as other survey participants to say they had had a successful career, but they were much less likely to express confidence about Social Security: Only 45% said they expected the program to be there when they need it, compared with 55% of the participants in other age groups.
(Image: Thinkstock)