Boomer Wealth Concentrates as Families Fear the Future

The top 10% of baby boomer households held 71% of their generation’s wealth in 2022, while nearly one-third of Americans 55 or older had no retirement savings. That’s the split behind the confidence numbers: wealth sits heavily concentrated at the top, while households across generations worry about paying for what comes next.

Who Holds the Wealth

Baby boomers make up 20% of the U.S. population and hold 31% of the country’s wealth, about $85 trillion in assets. But that headline total doesn’t describe the lives of most older people. According to a GoBankingRates survey, about half of people 55 or older who had savings held less than $100,000, and nearly one-third had none.

The costs keep climbing. An AARP report published in June found home-care inflation had risen 7.9% in the last five years, nearly twice overall inflation and three times medical inflation. Nursing-home costs rose 25% from 2019 to 2024, while household income for people over 65 rose 22% over the same period. Morgan Ward, professor of consumer behavior at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, said boomers and the Silent Generation faced rising health care costs as they lived longer and needed to pay for groceries from retirement funds.

“When the time horizons are shorter, you're more sensitive to these swings because you know that you want to be able to access your money,” Ward told Fortune. “You can imagine that if there's a really negative swing, you don't have the time to wait for the market to recover.”

The Cost of Getting By

Gen X’s six-month average on the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index sat at about 60 points, near its worst level in five years. Baby boomers scored below 50, their lowest in years. Both groups’ confidence had declined steadily since early 2025. Gen Z and millennials held roughly steady at around 100 and 90 points, respectively.

For Gen X, the strain includes caring for aging parents while supporting dependent children. Seventy percent said they feared running out of money more than death, compared with 66% of millennials and 61% of boomers. Forty-four percent of Gen Xers said they weren’t confident they could save enough for retirement. A 2024 Northwestern Mutual study found Gen X believed it needed $1.56 million to retire comfortably but had saved an average of $108,600, a $1.45 million gap.

In a CFP Board survey, 95% of Gen Xers said financial regrets had already cost them money; 59% reported stress and 40% reported anxiety tied to those regrets. These aren’t abstract measures. They describe people trying to keep households afloat while the numbers for retirement and care pull further out of reach.

A Home Still Out of Reach

Home prices had risen 235% since January 2000, leaving homeownership unattainable for many. Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning & Progress study found 34% of Gen Z adults worried they might never afford a house, while 31% were postponing a purchase because of financial pressure.

Younger adults have turned toward investing, though it doesn’t erase the price of housing. More than half of Gen Z had learned about investing before entering the workforce, compared with 20% of boomers, according to 2024 World Economic Forum survey data. Gen Z and millennials together held a record $3.1 trillion in investments. “For younger adults who despair about ever being able to buy a home, investing in financial markets can be a great way to save until they can afford one,” said Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin.

Gen Z’s confidence isn’t a clean victory lap. An April Gallup poll found excitement about artificial intelligence fell 14 percentage points to 22%, while anger toward AI rose nine points to 31%, amid debate over automation of entry-level jobs. A Bank of America Institute report published earlier in 2026 found Gen Z business applications were up about 66% year over year as of June, roughly the same as the combined rate for millennials, Gen X and boomers. Ward said young people living at home after college can reduce rent and other expenses. The route to security, for many, is still shaped by whether they can afford a home, find work, or rely on family support—not by confidence scores alone.