Jan 15, 2026
While much ink has been spilled on boomers and their retirement savings, a new report is sounding the alarm on their successors, who may be even worse off when it comes to retirement: Generation X.
A report by the Retirement Income Institute’s Alliance for Lifetime Income (ALI) has found that Gen X has “a fragile retirement foundation,” and that without taking certain measures, Gen Xers will be “entering retirement less secure than any generation before them (1).”
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In fact, the median retirement savings for this group is shockingly low, with women saving $6,000 and men saving $13,000. Only 14% of Gen X have access to a traditional pension.
Generation X includes people who were born roughly between 1965 and 1980. In other words, they’re generally between the ages of 45 and 60 today — prime time when it comes to ramping up retirement savings.
Here’s why they’re facing a crisis, and what you can do if you find yourself way behind on your retirement savings track, including tips for increasing your savings.
Gen X facing a number of obstacles
Generation X has, according to the ALI report, lived through eight recessions, increases in the cost of higher education and student loan borrowing costs, and six of the 19 biggest U.S. stock market corrections (2). Many members of the so-called “sandwich generation” are also supporting both aging parents and their own children, further hindering their financial readiness for retirement.
In Gen Xers’ lifetimes, the way that most Americans saved for retirement also underwent “seismic” shifts, the report notes, with changes in the law during the 1970s opening the door to employers offering alternative retirement plans that switched “the retirement savings responsibility onto the worker.”
In other words, the retirement savings methods of the past no longer apply to Gen X. As the report says, “The old metaphor of the three-legged stool of retirement planning — employer pensions, personal savings and Social Security — no longer holds.”
Social Security, the report notes, is a program facing “structural shortfalls” — the trust funds the program relies on to pay benefits may be depleted within a decade, at which points benefits could be reduced. It’s projected that Gen X will rely heavily on Social Security, with many people perhaps not knowing that “Social Security was only designed to replace approximately 40% of a retiree’s pre-retirement income.”
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Speaking to CNBC, Jason Fichtner, former deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, the Retirement Income Institute’s executive director and co-author of the report, said the impact is likely to be felt by the whole generation (3).
“I will be eligible for Social Security the year the trust fund is depleted,” he said. “It becomes a personal issue as well.”
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Are you behind on your retirement savings?
If you are also behind on your retirement savings, a good first step to getting on track can be to estimate how much retirement income you will need to maintain your standard of living.
According to the ALI report, a common rule of thumb for retirement assets is that they should provide about 70 to 75% of pre-retirement income.
You can also use the calculator on the Social Security Administration’s website to get an estimate of what your benefits could be.
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People over age 50 are eligible for up to $8,000 in additional catch-up contributions to their 401(k)s starting in 2026. However, workers aged 60 to 63 can make higher catch-up contributions — this year the limit is $11,250.
Gen Xers should also make sure that if their employer offers any matching programs for retirement savings that they are taking full advantage.
They can also look into a health savings account, which is tax-advantaged, with contributions made pre-tax and withdrawals for medical costs that qualify tax-free.
It’s also important to remember that as you near retirement experts generally recommend gradually rebalancing your portfolio to increase the proportion of lower-risk investments to protect against major market swings.
Editor’s note, Jan. 15, 2026: The headline has been changed to reflect ALI’s report summary, which states Gen X will enter retirement less secure than any generation before them.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Alliance for Lifetime Income (ALI) (1, 2); CNBC (3)
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Rebecca Payne has more than a decade of experience editing and producing both local and national daily newspapers. She's worked on the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, Metro, Canada's National Observer, the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
