Generation X Better at Saving, Planning Retirement than Previous Generations

Edward Jones, the financial brokerage firm, said on Wednesday that research reveals people of Generation X are far ahead of previous generations when it comes to the matter of saving, investing, and planning for retirement.

Nearly 70% of young people ages 25-34 have started an investment plan for their retirement years. By contrast, only 34% of people who are now over the age of 65, the traditional retirement age, say that they began saving or investing for their retirement before they were 34 years old.

However, those young people ages 18-24 have mostly not yet begun a retirement plan (69% say they haven't).

One factor driving the awareness of the Gen-X guys and gals is the increasingly sophisticated role of financial advisors and financial planners in people's financial lives.

Time was that insurance agents, stock brokers, bankers, financial advisors, and the professional financial roles were kept separated, not to mention mysterious.

A family found an insurance agent, usually because one knocked on their door or gave them a telephone call, and then stayed with him until he retired or died. The family's children would use the same agent.

Stock brokers were for people who were already wealthy or had a special knowledge of the stock market. Mutual funds were mysterious financial instruments sold by financial advisors who did not deal with insurance matters, and were for sophisticated people with financial degrees or people who inherited a family fortune.

The local bank offered something like 3% interest on a savings account and maybe 6% on certificates of deposit. Little advising was done.

Retirement planning was taken care of by your employer's pension. You felt you didn't need to know too much about what was in it and trusted the advice of your company's financial planner.