Further

Health - Wealth - Wisdom

Is Generation X Facing a Retirement Crisis?

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

You’ve seen the headlines… and they’re not pretty.

Here’s just one recent example from Forbes:

Generation X On The Brink: The Stark Reality Of Their Grim Retirement Outlook

The article reveals that the typical Generation X household has only $40,000 saved for retirement. We’re talking about people in midlife, currently at ages 45 to 60.

Now, the average retirement account balance is $130,000, which is nowhere near enough to retire on. But it’s actually even worse than that, because the average is skewed by the richest people – the 1% who have significantly more assets.

So let’s look at the median amount of retirement savings for Gen X:

It’s only $10,000.

That means half of all people born between 1965 and 1980 have less than $10,000 saved for when they stop working. And the majority of those who have more than the median don’t have nearly enough, especially those in their late 50s.

While older Baby Boomers are said to be sitting on a pile of cash, many younger Boomers (dubbed Generation Jones, born in the first half of the 1960s) are in much the same boat as Generation X.

You’d think people our age are scared to death that they won’t be able to retire on time.

But that’s far from the top concern. The greatest fear people in their 50s and early 60s cite in Transamerica’s Retirement Survey is “outliving my savings and investments.” And this is a very real concern given that we’re living much longer lives.

In fact, a 2024 survey from Allianz Life Insurance found that 63% of Americans worry more about running out of money than death. Given the dire consequences of poverty later in life, that’s understandable.

But if there’s a true retirement crisis, it’s the crippling depression and lack of purpose and meaning that retirees often experience. People over the age of 65 make up a disproportionate number of all suicides, with men in this age group at the highest risk of all demographics to take their own lives.

Plus, what the media calls the “Gen X retirement crisis” misses the real problem. And that’s ageism in the workforce that practically guarantees we won’t have enough savings.

Employers think we’re too old and are pushing us out the door, and yet most of us can’t afford to retire and coast for 30 years without working. In fact, it’s those with “just enough” retirement savings that are in the most danger of outliving their money.

Meanwhile, losing your job for an extended period of time further reduces your savings and stunts the amount of income you generate to eventually retire…. maybe someday?

Taking control of your income and working from where you want for how long you want is the only rational move. 

And just as this time in your life is the worst time to lose your job, it’s also the best time to start your own business.

Now, I’m not saying you just up and quit. But it is time to start developing a plan.

We call it “Unretirement Planning,” and that’s what Further is all about. Join us by signing up below, and start planning to live your best life now, not at some mythical retirement age.

Join 19,000+ subscribers at no charge:

About Further Founder Brian Clark

Brian Clark is a writer, traveler, and entrepreneur.

He’s best known as the founder of the pioneering content marketing resource Copyblogger, along with its popular StudioPress and Rainmaker business lines.

Between 2007 and 2017, Brian’s companies generated over $70 million in sales, all without investment and advertising thanks to a unique content marketing approach.

Following the acquisition of the Copyblogger collection of assets and a brief pause to travel the world with his family, Brian has started up new projects:

  • Further helps Generation X navigate the new realities of midlife, retirement, and longevity.
  • Leading Expert is an educational community for expertise-based business owners in an age of disruptive change.

Brian began publishing online back in 1998, and by 1999 had his first entrepreneurial success thanks to an understanding of the emerging commercial internet. He went on to launch two additional successful businesses using purely online marketing and digital infrastructure, attaining even greater success.

In January of 2006, Brian started a one-man website called Copyblogger, which quickly evolved into an influential digital trade magazine for what became the content marketing industry. Both the Guardian and Advertising Age have recognized Copyblogger as one of the most powerful and influential blogs in the world, and Venture Beat called it the “bible of content marketing.”

The company built around Copyblogger never took venture capital and made it to a highly profitable eight figures in annual revenue without advertising. It was the dedicated service to the audience Brian attracted that was the catalyst for the multimillion dollar tools, training, and service company he headed up as CEO.

In June of 2018, Clark engineered the sale of the company’s StudioPress division to WP Engine. In May of 2019, Nimble Worldwide acquired the Rainmaker Platform, Premise, and Scribe SaaS products. In 2023, Brian sold his remaining interest in Copyblogger.com.

Clark’s early adoption of online content to fuel startup companies in the late 1990s and early 2000s makes him a recognized pioneer of the now $600 billion content marketing industry. You can read more about his history and business philosophy at Forbes.

Brian has been featured in some great business books:

Join 19,000+ subscribers at no charge: