Latest news with #GenerationX
The Age
17 hours ago
- General
- The Age
With ageing parents, kids and jobs, life for the ‘sandwich generation' is no picnic
Not long ago, Karina Joyce had the ideal job come across her desk: 'A job so perfectly suited to me that I would get it hands down if I applied – but I can't!' The problem is, Joyce is so busy supporting everyone else she loves, she is seriously limited to what she can pursue for herself. It's a position many in Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980) and Millennial (1981-1996) women – and yes, research suggests it's still mostly women – find themselves in. 'I can't apply for it because everyone else needs me,' says Joyce, whose 360-degree caring responsibilities, plus work and a relationship, wedge her firmly into what has been dubbed 'the sandwich generation'. Her partner's much-loved father, Ivan, 91, lives with Joyce and her partner two weeks on, two weeks off (his other bedroom is at another relative's home). Joyce, 57, helps out with grandchildren and does whatever she can for her two busy adult children and is running her own start-up health business full-time. 'Every day, there's always some sort of mini-dilemma I've got to deal with,' says Joyce, who stresses she has no regrets – and less spare time. 'I get out of bed and it's straight into top gear ... there's no off switch, even on weekends.' As part of a lifestyle she describes as 'Groundhog Day in my house, every day', you may find her on her hands and knees cleaning an accident off the floor, helping her daughter source a repair company for a broken heater or having grandchildren overnight to give the parents a break, around her own work. 'I was at the computer at 6am today catching up on work from yesterday,' she says. The previous weekend, Joyce is not ashamed to say, she found herself teary and Googling support lines looking for respite options for exhausted carers.
Sydney Morning Herald
17 hours ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
With ageing parents, kids and jobs, life for the ‘sandwich generation' is no picnic
Not long ago, Karina Joyce had the ideal job come across her desk: 'A job so perfectly suited to me that I would get it hands down if I applied – but I can't!' The problem is, Joyce is so busy supporting everyone else she loves, she is seriously limited to what she can pursue for herself. It's a position many in Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980) and Millennial (1981-1996) women – and yes, research suggests it's still mostly women – find themselves in. 'I can't apply for it because everyone else needs me,' says Joyce, whose 360-degree caring responsibilities, plus work and a relationship, wedge her firmly into what has been dubbed 'the sandwich generation'. Her partner's much-loved father, Ivan, 91, lives with Joyce and her partner two weeks on, two weeks off (his other bedroom is at another relative's home). Joyce, 57, helps out with grandchildren and does whatever she can for her two busy adult children and is running her own start-up health business full-time. 'Every day, there's always some sort of mini-dilemma I've got to deal with,' says Joyce, who stresses she has no regrets – and less spare time. 'I get out of bed and it's straight into top gear ... there's no off switch, even on weekends.' As part of a lifestyle she describes as 'Groundhog Day in my house, every day', you may find her on her hands and knees cleaning an accident off the floor, helping her daughter source a repair company for a broken heater or having grandchildren overnight to give the parents a break, around her own work. 'I was at the computer at 6am today catching up on work from yesterday,' she says. The previous weekend, Joyce is not ashamed to say, she found herself teary and Googling support lines looking for respite options for exhausted carers.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
The forgotten generation keeping Britain running
Kate watches the war between millennials and baby boomers with some bemusement. As a member of Generation X, sandwiched between them, hers is an experience rarely discussed with the same fervour. 'We endlessly hear about millennials and the housing market, but Gen X missed the cheaper housing boom too,' says Kate, who asked not to give her second name. 'The joke about, and among, Gen X is that we are the forgotten generation. Ignored by our parents and the media alike, we are actually the ones keeping the country running.' She may have a point. Many members of Generation X – the cohort born between 1965 and 1980 – were denied the financial spoils granted to baby boomers, yet receive none of the pity (or scorn) afforded to millennials and Gen Z. Now aged between 45 and 60, they were too young to benefit from lucrative final salary pensions, but too old for auto-enrolment to make much of a difference. Their best years were blighted by financial crises, just as house prices soared out of reach. 'I was pay cheque to pay cheque' Kate, now 56, moved from Australia to London 30 years ago. She argues that life was tough for many young Gen Xers, which had a knock-on effect later in life. 'We largely left home, or were thrown out, at the age of 18, unlike younger generations who have been able to continue living with their parents throughout their 20s and even into their 30s,' she recalls. London in the 1990s was not cheap, either. 'I was very much from pay cheque to pay cheque, despite having a university degree,' recalls Kate. 'My friends and I used to have clothes-swapping parties in order to have something 'new'. There is no way I could have saved for a deposit for a home.' Twenty-somethings today grappling with the brutal rental market can take some comfort in the fact that the struggle never changes. Kate describes rent devouring around half of her monthly take-home pay. 'A friend of mine had three different jobs that paid for three different things – her rent, her bills and discretionary spending,' she says. 'In those days, you had to go through your bills line by line with your flatmates.' Kate ended up renting into her 40s, well after the point she had hoped to finally get a foot on the housing ladder. 'There was a massive rise in house prices in the 1990s and I wasn't in a position to buy,' she recalls. 'Council houses were being sold off, and I feel Gen X missed out on that. I recently bought my first flat and was only able to do so because my mother died prematurely of cancer and I inherited her house.' The 2008 financial crisis hit Gen X right around the time they were turning 30, souring dreams of homeownership for many. Housing affordability, defined as the ratio between house prices to annual earnings, had been rising throughout the decade, but plummeted as the world went into recession and borrowing became more difficult. Some, like Kate, ended up trapped in rental housing long after their incomes might have suggested they could buy – a familiar story to frustrated millennials. In 2020, the Office for National Statistics warned that Gen X, then in their mid-30s, were three times more likely to be renting than the same age group 20 years before. 'I feel like I missed out' Others, like Adrian Evans, 56, were lucky enough to buy property before interest rates soared in the 90s. A lucrative stint in a factory in his 20s ensured he could pay off his mortgage after eight years. 'Houses are really overvalued,' he says. 'I think the banks have let this happen, and I do have sympathy for younger generations, but I also wonder if maybe some of them didn't need to go to uni and saddle themselves with all that debt.' But it hasn't been an easy ride. When Evans left school in the 1980s, the future looked uncertain. All around him in South Yorkshire, steel mines and factories were closing. Opportunities were scarce. 'It was devastating,' Evans says. 'I drifted between low-paid jobs. I recovered pool tables and even did a stint in an abattoir. You had to take the work because there was no work.' Even now, Evans would struggle to describe his work history as resembling a career. He was born too early to be swept into university by Sir Tony Blair's pledge to make half of young people graduates. 'To be honest, I feel like I missed out,' he says. The working lives of many Gen Xers, whether or not they were university educated, were devastated by financial crashes, the collapse of the dot-com bubble, and in Evans's case, deindustrialisation. 'I remember just before my 40th birthday trying to organise a party, knowing lay-offs were looming at work,' Evans says of the climate in the mid-2000s. Official figures show that by the middle of their working lives, Gen X begin to stagnate financially. Over the 10 years following graduation, their average disposable income grew by 72.6pc, but over the next decade, taking them to middle-age, this figure plummeted to 5.5pc. Even millennials are faring better in this regard. It is yet to be seen how theirs and Generation Z's earnings will perform later in life, but income growth for late-career Gen Xers is a mere 9.6pc, compared to 35.8pc for boomers and 57.5pc for those born in the 1940s. Those who did manage to secure a home have been lucky. Though they may have accumulated housing wealth more slowly than their elders, Gen Z and Millennials still have it worse in this regard, says Lucian Cook of Savills. Over 60s account for £2.89 trillion in housing wealth, equivalent to more than half of all owner-occupied homes. Meanwhile, Gen X has amassed £2.4 trillion in bricks and mortar, compared to the £820bn owned by millennials. 'Baby boomers have continued to build wealth, having largely paid off their mortgages and benefited from decades of rising property values,' Cook says. 'Generation X is following a similar path. However, millennials and Gen Z have had much less opportunity to work their way up the housing ladder profitably due to higher prices, stricter lending criteria and weaker wage growth.' 'Stuck in the middle' Another quirk of timing means that many members of Gen X's careers have slowed down or been derailed just as they reached their supposed peak earning years, causing a knock-on effect on their retirements. Financial crises aside, some industries – particularly in media and the arts – shrank rapidly throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Paul Sanders, 58, is a self-employed music teacher and has seen this happen first-hand as his pay stagnates relative to rising living costs. 'My income has effectively stayed at a fixed level,' he says. 'I remember starting out thinking this is quite good now, but in real terms, it will be the same by the time I retire.' Pay for arts teachers has been eroded by inflation, he says, to the point that music itself has become a discretionary spend. Sanders believes he is lucky that his father, a former bank manager, imparted the basics of financial planning, so he has saved into a private pension throughout his working life. Polling by Standard Life paints a bleak picture of Gen X's pension prospects, who have been left behind by their wealthier older peers. More than half of Gen X fear their finances will not cover their retirement, compared to just 31pc of baby boomers. This is because Gen Xers were 'caught between the decline of defined benefit pensions and the massive expansion in defined contribution savings over the past decade', says James Norton, of Vanguard. Lucrative final salary schemes were in decline by the time Gen X were in the early stages of their careers. In 2000, more than 9 million people were members of one of these defined benefit schemes, a figure that had dropped to 6.8 million by 2012. Many members of Gen X neglected to take up defined contribution alternatives, while auto-enrolment – which ensured workers saved into a pension – only came about in 2012. Since 2020, fewer than one in 20 defined benefit pension schemes were open to new members, with almost 72pc closed to future accrual in 2023, the House of Commons' Work and Pensions Committee found. Lily Megson, of My Pension Expert, says: 'Many Gen Xers missed out on pension growth in their early career – in fact, around two-thirds of over-40s wish they'd been taught about pensions earlier, and some didn't benefit from auto-enrolment until well into their working lives. Now they're playing catch-up with retirement on the horizon.' Higher life expectancy mean that members of this generation are inheriting later, while they are also having longer working lives, says Simon Wong, wealth planner at JM Finn. All the while, they are sandwiched between looking after ageing parents and paying for their children into adulthood. 'Boomers were comparatively young when they had children. Gen Xers tended to have children later,' he adds. 'They're now supporting both university-age children and ageing parents in their care home period, and doing it on rapidly shrinking salaries with 10 to 15 years to go to reaching an increased state pension age of 67.' Sanders, for his part, has made his peace with where being born into Generation X has left him. 'I stayed doing what I was good at,' he says. 'I could have gotten a salaried job and climbed the greasy pole, and I am certainly glad I didn't.' Even so, there is a lingering sense that maybe if he'd been born earlier, his fortunes might have improved. On this 50th birthday, he wistfully went looking for a new home, but found the endeavour rather pointless. 'I did envisage myself upsizing by this point, but for what I could afford, there was no significant improvement to what I have now. I'm stuck in the middle.'
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Boomers officially spending more than any other age group
When it comes to spending by different age demographics, thinking can often be defined by generalisation and even flat-out stereotypes. Like the 20-something professional, living in the inner city subsisting entirely on smashed avo on toast or the retiree whose only discretionary spending is the early bird special at the local RSL. But while these stereotypes may be representative of individuals in our own lives or of our own perceptions, data from the Commonwealth Bank and the ABS suggests that they are increasingly removed from reality at an aggregate level. As Baby Boomers have aged, they have as a collective generation taken the traditional perception of older demographics and completely dismantled them, from the way they dress to the way the spend their money in retirement. According to research conducted for communications and advertising firm WPP, over 50s now account for 64 per cent of new car purchases and 55 per cent of all travel spending. Despite the perception that Gen Y was the biggest spending generation, the WPP report concluded that: 'The over 50s Australians outspend millennials in entertainment, auto, health, travel and almost every other category' 'When it comes to buying consumer goods online, the over 50s spend about $40 billion more than millennials and Generation X each year.' The hard numbers Perhaps the best source for understanding how household consumption spending varies by age demographic in Australia in recent years comes from the Commonwealth Bank. Through CBA's Cost Of Living Report, the level of monthly per capita spending is revealed broken down by age demographic generally in 5 year increments, with the exception of 18 to 24's and those 75 and over. Immediately, the data series which excludes housing costs reveals some rather surprising results. The age cohort most associated with recent retirees, those aged 65 to 69 now spends more per month than any age demographic under 45. Meanwhile, on this metric individuals aged 70 to 74 spend more per month than any age demographic under 35. Despite the image in much of the nation's collective consciousness of the spend thrift retiree, in more recent years the reality has become profoundly different. The current crop of retirees on average have a greater means and a greater inclination to spend. It is however worth noting that this aggregate data is based on averages, which can be significantly distorted higher by high spending individuals of significant wealth. The Why Part of the shift toward higher levels of consumer consumption in retirement is due to the nation's superannuation system. As people retire with more years of compulsory superannuation contributions under their belt, the greater the aggregate means of individuals in their retirement becomes. Housing wealth is also a significant factor. As retirees downsize, migrate to less expensive areas or sell off investment properties, a greater and greater portion of the nation's $11 trillion housing wealth becomes available to be spent into the economy. There has also arguably been a cultural shift in the spending habits of retirees since the pandemic began. After a long time in lockdown or being limited to from doing any number of things from travel to having a nice meal out, there is seemingly a growing attitude of seizing the day and enjoying things in the here and now. A long time coming While some older demographics overtaking the young for spending excluding housing costs is a new development, the shift in this direction began well over a decade ago. For Australian households led by a reference person under the age of 45, they are in aggregate spending less on household consumption excluding housing than their predecessors were at the same age in 2003-04. Meanwhile, non-housing consumption growth accelerates dramatically as the comparison point get's older, with 65 and over's seeing growth of 27.5% vs 2003-04 and 55 to 64's seeing growth of 19.2%. It is worth noting that the levels of real growth seen by older demographics are not unprecedented, in a different era one might deem them perfectly normal. But in the modern age of real household consumption growth going more or less no where for a large proportion of the population at an aggregate level, it's increasingly the outlier. The takeaway While it's true that Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation to have ever lived, snapshots taken at an aggregate level mask a significant divergence in outcomes within that age demographic. ' 63.3 per cent of people in the country of pension age or older currently receive an aged pension, with 42.9 per cent receiving a full aged pension and 20.4 per cent receiving some form of part pension. The unfortunate reality is that outside of the over 50 age demographic, inflation adjusted per capita household consumption growth at an aggregate level is all but dead in recent years. While interest rate cuts will be something of a tail wind to the consumption of under 50s, the nation has seen this particular episode before. Between 2011 and 2020, the RBA cash rate was slashed again and again, from a level of 4.75 per cent in October 2011 to 0.1 per cent in November 2020. Despite this shift, inflation adjusted household spending growth for younger demographics in per capita terms remained weak or was outright falling compared with the previous peaks. Ultimately, the current circumstances will prove to be a major political and societal challenge going forward. When most of a society is struggling at the same time, people can generally make their peace with the fact that times are tough. But when one subset of an age demographic is prospering while those in younger demographics struggle significantly more to achieve a level of financial independence and quality of life similar to previous generations, it creates a substantial challenge for policymakers and our society more broadly.
Al Etihad
5 days ago
- Health
- Al Etihad
Rare appendix cancers are increasing among millennials and Gen X
17 June 2025 00:53 (THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE)A new study shows that appendix cancer is becoming more common among younger generations, mirroring a pattern that has been occurring with other cancers since the incidence rates among members of Generation X were two to three times higher than among people born in the 1940s, according to the study, which was published last week in the Annals of Internal among older millennials, born in the 1980s, were more than four times with those increases, appendix cancer still remains extremely rare. Doctors diagnose an estimated 3,000 new cases in the United States each year, compared with more than 150,000 cases of colon and rectal findings come at a time of growing concern about the earlier onset of certain cancers, including colorectal, breast and kidney cancers. The new research describes what's known as a "birth cohort' effect, or a disease becoming more common among successive an effect lends credence to the idea that people born after a certain time have had similar exposures to something that is increasing their cancer risk more so than among people born decades before, said Dr. Andrea Cercek, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who was not involved in the the fact that researchers have seen similar generational effects in colorectal and gastric cancers suggests there may be some shared risk factors between those cancers and appendix cancer, said Dr. Andrew T. Chan, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who researches the epidemiology of colon cancer and also was not involved in the is one such possibility, he said. Our consumption of ultraprocessed foods has increased over time, and these foods - particularly processed meats and sugar-sweetened beverages - have been associated with increased risk for colon of metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes - both of which have been associated with colon and stomach cancers - have been increasing over time. Young people, in particular, may be increasingly exposed to the negative effects of obesity and diabetes during a time of life when they are possibly more susceptible to developing cancer, Chan and changes to the gut microbiome are also thought to increase the risk of some gastrointestinal still don't know whether any of these environmental factors specifically influence appendix cancer, said Andreana Holowatyj, an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and lead author of the new study. Because the cancer is so rare, there is very little research on its and other experts said that a multitude of factors are likely at play, including genetics. Better diagnosis may also be responsible for some of the documented increase, Holowatyj recently, some appendix cancers - which are often diagnosed incidentally when someone with appendicitis has their appendix removed - were misclassified as colon researchers found a particularly strong generational effect for a specific type of cancer that has always been classified as appendix cancer. A research effort called the Appendiceal Cancer Consortium is working to pool data and specimens from across studies to better understand the risk factors and biological markers specific to appendix there is no good way to screen for the cancer right now, scientists hope that more knowledge about the disease will lead to greater awareness of the symptoms and, perhaps, earlier other research, Holowatyj found that 77% of patients diagnosed with appendix cancer presented with at least one sign or symptom of an abdominal condition, like pain or bloating. Often, those symptoms lasted for months, compared with the more acute symptoms that usually cause people with appendicitis to seek care. "There's an opportunity and a window for intervention there,' Holowatyj said.
