Gen X built their whole identity on never needing help. Retirement is the one door they can’t unlock alone

Jeanne Thompson, Senior Retirement Consultant for LPL Financial.

Gen X, 65 million Americans born between 1965 and 1980, is fast approaching retirement, and unlike the boomers before them, they’re the first generation whose retirement rests on a 401(k) rather than a pension. Only 14% of Gen X workers have a traditional pension, compared with 56% of baby boomers. 

And as latchkey kids, Gen X grew up to be the workhorses: the generation most likely to define themselves by output and impact, and the least likely to ask for help. Just 26% of Gen Xers work with a financial advisor, compared with 43% of boomers. These two facts drastically change what retirement looks like for this generation. 

Which is why, for many, it doesn’t feel like an invitation. It feels like a threat to their identity — and a challenge unlike any they’ve faced: turning decades of savings into an income stream. A hurdle where they may have to ask for help — something they’re not used to doing. 

The biggest retirement shift in a generation is starting to happen and once again, nobody’s watching. A generation sandwiched between the boomers and the millennials, Gen X built careers in the gaps, ran companies from the middle, grinding away while everyone else got the headlines.

I should know. I’m a Gen Xer. Born in 1967, I’m a bona fide latchkey kid. My mother was a registered nurse, and every day after school I unlocked the door for myself and my two younger siblings, got us a snack, and watched The Brady Bunch. I built my career from the ground up and spent more than two decades in the 401(k) industry, helping Fortune 500 companies design their plans—then retired four-and-a-half years ago.

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