Gen Xers fret over the future of Social Security. “I will likely be working in retirement.”
(CBS) — Retirement is biting Generation X. Its oldest members will turn 62 next year, the earliest age at which people can claim Social Security benefits, with many Americans having too little saved to stop working even as the program faces its own funding crisis.
Chris Branaman, 53, jokes that his retirement will be spent as a Walmart greeter.
“That’s my funny way of saying I will likely be working in retirement,” said Branaman of Bay City, Michigan, who works in IT and says he has about $100,000 saved in his 401(k) plan. He doesn’t expect that will be enough to fund his retirement, even if he’s able to put more money away over the next decade.
Branaman is hardly alone. Gen Xers, who are now 46 to 61 years old, entered the workforce in the 1980s and 1990s, just as employers were shifting away from pensions in favor of 401(k)s.
In the 1970s, about half of all private-sector workers had pensions, which are employer-funded and guarantee a payout at retirement. Today, only about 14% of private-sector workers have pensions, a major transformation in the retirement landscape that experts cite as one reason many Americans are woefully short on savings.
The fundamental shift toward 401(k)s places the onus on employees to decide how much to save and to plot out their investment strategy. As a result, many Gen Xers are now realizing that Social Security may end up serving as their primary — or even only — source of retirement income. The 401(k) system hasn’t worked for them, several workers in the cohort told CBS News.
Compounding their concerns is a projected Social Security funding shortfall in 2032, which could trigger benefit cuts just as many Gen Xers are set to retire.
Gen Xers cited headwinds ranging from structural issues — automatic enrollment wasn’t available when they started working, while some didn’t always have access to retirement plans at times in their careers — to economic and personal crises, with job losses and divorce causing some to dip into their retirement savings to get by.
“Maybe we didn’t think about it as much early on, just because we were so used to seeing previous generations taken care of by their employers,” Branaman said. The 401(k), he added wryly, “was perfect for our generation: Figure it out.”
Social Security “warning”
About 41% of U.S. workers over 55 expect Social Security to be their primary source of income in retirement, up from 32% last year, according to a recent survey from financial services firm NFP. That far outpaces the 26% in the same age group who believe their retirements will be mostly funded by 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement accounts, the poll found.
This data “is a warning light,” Jessica Espinoza, NFP managing director and national practice leader for retirement, told CBS News. “Those that are about to hit retirement, that’s really the first tranche of individuals that have had to rely on their own savings.”
She added, “They didn’t have pension plans, and it’s really Social Security and whatever else they’ve been able to accumulate that’s going to drive whether they can retire on their own terms or not, and that’s really daunting for that population.”
Two-legged stool
Social Security was designed to provide one leg of retirement’s so-called three-legged stool, with personal savings, such as a 401(k), and pensions serving as the other two legs. Under that design, Social Security should replace about 40% of a person’s income in retirement, according to the National Council on Aging.
About 14% of Gen Xers still have pensions, such as teachers and government workers, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security. That means most of those born between 1964 and 1980 will rely on what is effectively a two-legged stool — 401(k)s and Social Security — to fund their retirement.
Yet most Gen Xers haven’t saved nearly enough for retirement, with a median of $107,000 in savings. At the same time, Gen Xers think they’ll need roughly $700,000 in savings to adequately fund their golden years, according to a 2025 study from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
“It’s scary”
The Gen Xers interviewed by CBS News expressed frustration with the retirement system, with many saying they’ll have no choice but to continue working in old age.
Some have also had to tap their 401(k) plans to cope with financial shocks, like a 61-year-old who is currently drawing down her $100,000 retirement fund after losing her job in December. She said she hasn’t yet found a new job, which she speculated could be due to ageism. She spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive financial information she shared.
“It’s scary,” she told CBS News. “I honestly don’t know how one navigates through one’s elder years.”
Her plan is now to continue working after claiming Social Security, which she will draw based on her ex-husband’s earnings. She estimates she’ll receive about $4,000 a month in Social Security benefits, an amount she said will be insufficient to cover her day-to-day expenses in the Los Angeles area.
“I don’t know how a person in Southern California lives on $4,000 a month with nothing saved,” the woman added.
Gen Xers also spoke to CBS News about the difficulty of saving for retirement while coping with the financial pressures of helping their kids, who are teens or in their early 20s, and the rising cost of living.
“We were buying groceries for $120 a week,” said Joshua, a 54-year-old from Tennessee who has less than $100,000 saved in his 401(k) and asked that his last name be withheld due to privacy concerns. “Now if you go into the grocery store, it’s $250.”
He added, “The entire tide has risen, but wages haven’t risen to keep up with it.”
Unlike other Gen Xers, he expects to receive a pension from his job as an IT administrator at a public college in Tennessee. This benefit should allow him to retire if he remains financially prudent, he said.
Hard to catch up
Some Gen Xers are aiming to help their children with college expenses, like J. Ashley Renfroe, 51, whose 17-year-old daughter will be a high school senior this fall. Renfroe said helping her pay for college will likely curtail his budget over the next several years, but that the financial decision is important to him.
“I’d rather she not start out with the burden of student loans, like I did, or my wife,” he said.
Renfroe, who works as a 401(k) plan administrator, noted that people over 50 are often urged to use catch-up contributions to bolster their retirement savings. Under IRS tax law, the savings limit for all workers is $24,500 in 2026, although people over 50 can contribute an extra $8,000 a year.
In his experience working in the retirement industry, he said, few can take advantage of that.
“The only people doing catch-up contributions are owners and shareholders in those businesses. The only other ones are very high earners,” Renfroe said, adding that his own pay isn’t enough for him to do so.
He added, “Everything in my industry is tone deaf. People don’t make enough to cover their cost of living or fully realize the benefit of saving into a 401(k).”
Social Security in crisis
Unlike other Gen Xers interviewed by CBS News, Renfroe doesn’t believe Social Security will exist by the time he retires. He said he expects to work until he dies.
“We’ve been telling people not to rely on Social Security. I’ve taken that to heart,” he said.
To be sure, Social Security’s trust fund is six years away from becoming insolvent, at which point the 70 million people who receive monthly benefits could see a 22% cut to their payments. Yet most retirement experts believe Social Security will continue to exist and that, given the potential political fallout, Congress is likely to shore up the program to avoid slashing benefits.
Barring a remedy, however, millions of Gen Xers could reach retirement age just as their Social Security benefits face a major hit.
If Social Security becomes insolvent, Branaman said, “Then it becomes: Am I living in a house, an apartment, a van down by the river? You really have to keep all options on the table and be open to adapting to that moment.”
In the meantime, the Gen Xers who spoke with CBS News noted that they’re talking to their children, who are in their teens and early 20s, about the importance of saving for retirement starting at an early age.
“No one talked to me about saving, budgeting, looking to the future,” said the 61-year-old in Los Angeles. “I came from a single-mother household, lower economic range, and she didn’t know.”
“So fortunately I’ve been able to educate my daughter, who is already light years ahead,” she added.
Some Gen Xers who spoke with CBS News expressed their generation’s trademark cynicism about retirement, stressing that they entered the workforce at a time when it was assumed that workers would know exactly how and when to save.
In recent years, legislation like the 2022 SECURE 2.0 Act has bolstered the retirement system by adding features such as automatic 401(k) enrollment and automatic escalation, which increase workers’ contribution rates over time. The Gen Xers felt like trying to catch up with their retirement savings in their 50s and early 60s would be difficult, if not impossible.
“I’m going to have to figure this thing out on my own, which is a very Gen X thing,” said Joshua, the IT administrator in Tennessee. “When you get to my age, and you don’t have a $1 million 401(k), you feel like a failure. There are more people closer to my situation than those with a $1 million 401(k).”
