Gen X represents just 19% of the U.S. population but accounts for 31% of all retail spending, yet retailers seem to forget the significance of this generation. The powerhouse demographic of 45- to 60-year-olds is approaching peak earning years with $42 trillion in current household wealth and an estimated $1.4 trillion a year in inherited assets projected over the next decade.
Dionne Foster, 52, built a steady career as a business analyst contractor before losing her job in April 2024. A year later, she found herself taking on an eight-week summer internship at an IT company, where she made $20 an hour and worked alongside a high schooler. 'I haven't made $20 an hour since I was in college,' Foster said. Foster accepted the internship offer after roughly a year on the job market, where she cast a wide net of applications for both full-time and contract opportunities.
Some Gen Xers look back on elementary and middle school lunch periods fondly. Perhaps they were a welcome respite from the boredom of classroom learning, a time to have fun with their friends, or a chance to trade lunch box treats. For others, it was a dreaded period of forced socialization (or isolation), or the moment they realized what horrors awaited them in their lunch bag.
Crypto might seem like a perfect opportunity for Gen X investors. This generation has the kind of tech savvy that comes from learning to use new digital tools as they're invented, making them much more likely to understand and appropriately invest in cryptocurrency. The timing also feels ideal, since Gen X retirements are on the horizon, and crypto enthusiasts promise this investment can provide quick financial boosts.
Nearly 25% of older Gen X and young boomer workers laid off in the past decade haven't found new jobs, with 11% taking pay cuts.
One reason talk of giving up leaves a bad taste in the mouth, writes psychoanalyst Adam Phillips in his book On Giving Up, is that it is felt to be an ominous foreshadowing of, or reminder of the ultimate giving up that is suicide.
