Gen X Balancing Financial Priorities

By Brent Meyer — SafeMoney.com Founder & Editor Reviewed by Licensed Financial Professionals  |  SafeMoney.com — Trusted Since 2011  |  Updated Regularly Quick Answer: Explore how Gen X can manage financial priorities while securing their future with safe money alternatives. Learn more at SafeMoney.com. “The Breakfast Club” was a classic coming-of-age film. The stars of the movie? Gen X misfits dreaming of their futures during a fateful day-long detention in their high school library. What they couldn’t have foreseen is that many Gen Xers would grow up to be responsible not only for their own well-being, but for the care and livelihood of their parents and their grown children as well. So, if a sequel about Gen Xers was made today, it might be called “The Breakfast Sandwich Club.” And why? Many members of Gen X struggle to plan for their own futures while facing the financial impact of caring for the generations before and after them. Survey Paints a Startling Picture Balancing the competing priorities of financial support for family members means that Gen Xers are having a hard time with their own financial wellbeing. Researchers found that especially applied to building up both their emergency funds and retirement savings, according to a new survey released by PNC Financial Services. “The survey revealed that current members of the sandwich generation, as well as those we call ‘half sandwich’ – folks caring for either children or elderly parents, but not both – are under financial stress . They’re struggling to save for their own needs,” according to Rich Ramassini, a director at PNC Investments. “Adding the demands associated with financially supporting children and/or elderly family members now or in the future, paints a very grim picture for this demographic unless they take immediate action.” PNC says it commissioned the survey to understand how respondents, who were between the ages of 36 to 60, handle financial decisions and any related stress involving investing and retirement . Those interviewed were either the main financial decision-makers or they shared financial decision-making duties in their household, PNC explained. For Many Gen Xers, Household Savings Either Short or Non-Existent One of the most alarming findings in the survey is that the majority of respondents—almost 40%—admitted to having no emergency savings at all. An equal number of people (31%) said they either would run out of funds within 6 months or would