Thoughts of retirement are changing in our society. I work with a large spectrum of clients of all ages and a lot of them are wondering if retirement is in the picture for them at all.
The first to surprise me with this thought was when I was talking to a couple of Millennials stated that they never expected to be able to retire. While some peers expect to quickly become millionaires, some are much more pessimistic about the future.
I have GenXers who are living paycheck to paycheck. Some have not had raises in years, but are not comfortable with the economy enough to switch jobs, since they do not have specialized skills and are in lower level mid-tier positions. I know that there is strong competition on entry level or low paying positions, but these people are not at that level any longer. A few of these people have been looking for a while and are not getting interviews or offers. So saving for the future with increasing costs is difficult with some of these factors.
Boomers have notoriously have not been good savers. A tremendous amount of Boomer wealth has been received from previous generations. Not all, I do have a numbers of retired professionals who have been able to accumulate significant wealth. But a large number are working longer than they expected and are planning on working longer, because they do not have the savings to allow retirement at their current lifestyle levels.
Business owners within all generational strata expect to retain their businesses or at least the bulk of their paycheck from the business as they slow down.
The future is uncertain, the tariff and the threat of an economic downturn of the idea of AI all are having an impact on thoughts of retirement. Not to mention how long will we live. There are more people in the US over 100 than ever before. Do you the assets to be one of them?