There’s also research to suggest that seniors in the U.S. Recent studies also suggest that many folks in the older generation haven’t saved nearly enough for retirement and a majority aren’t financially prepared to maintain their lifestyles after they can no longer work. “The 50 percent of baby boomers who aren’t wealthy don’t have much at all, and will live out their retired years on social security, help from family and friends, and possibly a pension if they have it,” Ryon says. White, middle-class households own nearly eight times as much wealth as middle-income black households-and experts predict that if current trends continue, it will take 228 years for the average black family to reach the same level of wealth white families have today. And America’s racial income gap appears to be widening, instead of shrinking. ![]() Women continue to make 83 cents for every dollar that men do, fare worse financially post-divorce, and invest far less than men do over the course of their lifetimes - all factors that make them more likely to depend on their kids for support later in life. Victoria Warnken & Austin Courrege/BustleĪ snapshot of what this "other half" looks like is a snapshot of income inequality writ large in the US. The other half will be getting essentially nothing.” “But that’s all going to the kids of about half of baby boomers. “Millennials are going to experience the largest transfer of wealth in the world’s history,” Bill Ryon, the co-founder and managing partner of Compass Investment Advisors, tells Bustle. In fact, segments of this age demographic have so much money, they won’t even be able to spend it all before they die (even after 50 percent of them give $250 worth of financial help to their millennial children every month). According to a 2015 Gallup poll, more than 50 percent have over $100,000 of investable assets on hand, while one in five have over $500,000. By every indication, millennials are broke, whereas baby boomers are now the wealthiest generation in the history of US. There are innumerable political, economic, and social divides between baby boomers and millennials, but money - who has it, who needs it, who gets to spend it and how - is arguably the most stark. Now, I'm just paying a little more than the minimum payment each month.” “I was trying to snowball my debt before, but I had to give money to my mom to help pay for the house when my grandma died. “Right now, I have about $22,000 left to pay on my student loans,” Thompson says. For the first time in American history, economists predict that young people will be worse off than previous generations, and that has a lot to do with the fact that on top of their own unique financial and socio-economic struggles, they’ll be on the hook for all their parents' debt, too. Of course, children have always been tasked with taking care of their aged parents - but something different is happening here. “I was trying to snowball my debt before, but I had to give money to my mom.”Īs baby boomers edge closer to retirement or the inability to work, and millennials are struggling to gain financial freedom (after amassing the largest student loan debt in history), experiences like Thompson’s are becoming increasingly common. ![]() Even as a teen, Thompson worked part-time and paid for dance lessons and other extracurriculars for her four younger sisters so they wouldn’t miss out. “I’ve had to constantly use my savings to help my family,” she says. ![]() Now, as she looks towards the future, Thompson is worried that her mother’s financial insecurity has denied her the ability to build a safety net for herself. When her mother needed to move because she could no longer afford her house a few months ago, Thompson helped fund that, too. “Since the age of 17, I've bailed my mom out at least once a year when she had expenses that she didn’t foresee or budget for on her paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle,” Thompson tells Bustle.Įarlier this year, Thompson and two of her sisters had to cover the cost of her grandmother’s funeral when her parents couldn’t afford it. For the last four years, Michelle Thompson, a 22-year-old communications associate at a civil engineering firm in Salt Lake City, has been helping her mom get by.
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