'The Jan Brady of generations': Expert warns of chaos for coming wave of retirees

Generation X — those born between 1965 and 1980 — are the first generation where a majority work in jobs that won't have a pension plan — and many of them fear they'll never be able to retire, according to a new book.

"Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy" by Teresa Ghilarducci, explores the lives of those born after Baby Boomers and the struggle to live into old age with financial constraints, wrote CBS News.

Ghilarducci described Gen X as the first generation required to handle its own retirement alone. Some older Boomers were still able to work in jobs that provided pension plans, such as teachers, police, firefighters and nurses.

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For Gen X, "The 401(k) puts the onus squarely on the shoulders of participants to figure out how much to save, how to invest and how to withdraw their money in retirement — a do-it-yourself approach that noted retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci has described as flimsy."

The book describes the generation as the "Jan Brady of generations," overlooked by larger generations like Boomers and the Millennial Generation, explained Dave Goodsell, executive director of the Natixis Center for Investor Insight

"They were the kids left alone after school, and they are kind of on their own in retirement, too," he said of the generation roughly described as those born between the mid '60s and late '70s.

About 1 in 5 Gen Xers have the fear they won't be able to stop working, even if they were able to save $1 million. About a quarter of the generation fear they'll be so short on cash into their old age that they'll be forced to go back to work in their 80s.

A $1 million savings seems like a joke, particularly for generations whose careers were stymied by the 2007 economic crash or the pandemic, the report stated.

A 2018 poll of Millennials and Gen Xers showed that they both blame Baby Boomers for ruining the world when looking at issues like climate change, the soaring price of higher education, trickle-down economics, and the possibility of bringing down Social Security and Medicare.

The "typical Gen X household with a private retirement plan has $40,000 in savings. About 40% of the group hasn't saved a penny for their retirement," a study found earlier this year.

Meanwhile, other segments of the generation have an overly optimistic understanding of their investments. Some think that they'll score as much as 13% in returns on their 401(k) investments. The typical annual return is closer to 10% for the S&P 500, the report said.

"For a lot of folks, when they are thinking of investing, it's back-of-the-napkin thinking," Goodsell told CBS.

He encourages Gen Xers to "learn as much as you can and be realistic about what you can accomplish."

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