Gen X Is More Anxious About Retirement Than Boomers. Here’s Why.

The first wave of Gen X — Americans now between the ages of 55 and 60 — is approaching retirement. And according to a new survey from Global Atlantic, they are doing so with significantly more anxiety than the generation that preceded them.

The 2026 Global Atlantic Retirement Outlook Survey polled 1,011 consumers with $250,000 to $2 million in investable assets, ages 55 to 75, all of whom work with a financial professional, as well as 505 financial professionals. The results reveal a meaningful gap in retirement readiness and confidence between Gen X and Boomers — one rooted not in attitudes, but in structural differences in how each generation has approached and will fund retirement.

The Anxiety Gap Is Real and Wide

Twenty-eight percent of first-wave Gen Xers said they are extremely or very concerned about having enough income to last their lifetime. Among Boomers ages 61 to 75, that figure stands at 14% — half the rate. The gap is not marginal. It reflects a fundamentally different retirement outlook between two generations that are not far apart in age.

The behavioral implications are just as striking. Nearly half of Gen X respondents — 48% — said they anticipated returning to work after retirement due to financial concerns. Among Boomers, only 21% said the same. The expectation of working in retirement is no longer a lifestyle preference for many Gen Xers. It is a financial contingency plan.

Rising healthcare costs ranked as the top retirement concern for both consumers and financial professionals in the survey, with six in ten respondents extremely or very concerned. But consumers expressed greater overall economic unease than the advisors who serve them. Sixty-two percent of consumers said they felt more uncertainty about the U.S. economy than in the past, compared with four in ten financial professionals.

Pension Envy Is Widespread

One of the more revealing findings in the survey involves what Global Atlantic calls “pension envy” — the sentiment among those without traditional pension coverage that they are missing something significant. Among Gen X consumers without pensions, 56% reported some or absolute pension envy. Among Boomers without pensions, the figure was 44%.

The difference is understandable. Boomers who retired earlier did so at a time when defined benefit pension coverage was more common, and many had access to plans that provided a guaranteed monthly income for life. Gen Xers, by contrast, came of age professionally during the shift toward defined contribution plans — 401(k)s and similar vehicles that build a balance but do not guarantee income.

That transition has left many Gen Xers in a position that Boomers did not face to the same degree: they must create their own income stream from accumulated savings, without the built-in structure that a pension provides. As Jason Bickler, Co-Head Individual Markets at Global Atlantic, put it: “Unlike prior generations that often relied on pension plans, many of today’s near-retirees must create their own reliable income stream from accumulated savings, even while facing rising health care costs and economic uncertainty.”

The Gap Between Protecting Assets and Planning Income

The survey surfaces a tension that appears frequently in retirement research: the difference between wanting security and having a plan for it. Sixty-one percent of consumers said protecting assets is more important to them than growing assets — a clear signal that wealth preservation and income stability are top of mind. Yet 38% of those same respondents said they do not have a specific retirement income plan.

That gap is notable given the context: every consumer in the survey already works with a financial professional. The absence of a specific income plan is not a function of lacking access to advice. It reflects how difficult the transition from accumulation to income planning can be, even with professional support, and how often the retirement income conversation gets deferred in favor of near-term investment decisions.

Emily LeMay, Co-Head Individual Markets at Global Atlantic, addressed this directly: “An investment strategy isn’t the same as an income plan. Our research shows many consumers have done a strong job building assets, but fewer have translated those assets into a clearly defined income strategy.”

Social Security Confidence Has Eroded

The survey also captures the extent to which Social Security uncertainty is weighing on near-retirees. Sixty-nine percent of consumers said they are concerned that Social Security will not provide full benefits for the rest of their lives. That level of concern — among a group that is already working with financial professionals and has substantial assets — reflects how deeply the question of Social Security’s long-term solvency has penetrated retirement planning conversations.

For Gen Xers in particular, Social Security uncertainty compounds the pension gap. Without a defined benefit pension and with questions about the future level of Social Security benefits, the responsibility for creating reliable lifetime income falls almost entirely on individual savings and planning decisions.

Finding	Gen X (Ages 55–60)	Boomers (Ages 61–75)
Extremely/very concerned about income lasting lifetime	28%	14%
Anticipate returning to work after retirement	48%	21%
Report “pension envy” (among those without pensions)	56%	44%
Protecting assets more important than growing	61% (combined)
No specific retirement income plan	38% (combined)
Concerned Social Security won’t provide full benefits	69% (combined)

The Accumulation-to-Income Transition

What the Global Atlantic survey ultimately describes is the challenge of a generation that saved — often diligently — but now faces the harder question of how to convert those savings into income that is predictable, sustainable, and capable of lasting 20 to 30 years or more.

This transition is genuinely difficult. It requires decisions about timing, about which assets to draw down first, about how to integrate Social Security, and about how much of one’s savings to convert into guaranteed income versus keeping in a flexible portfolio. These decisions interact with each other in ways that are not always intuitive, and the consequences of getting them wrong are difficult to reverse.

The survey’s finding that 38% of respondents — all of whom work with advisors — lack a specific income plan suggests that even clients with professional guidance are often still in the accumulation mindset when they should be shifting toward income planning. The conversation about how to spend, not just how to save, needs to start earlier and go deeper than it often does.

What This Means for Near-Retirees

The Gen X retirement anxiety captured in the Global Atlantic survey is not irrational. It reflects real structural conditions: the end of widespread pension coverage, uncertainty about Social Security, rising healthcare costs, and the complexity of building a reliable income stream from a lump sum of savings. These are legitimate planning challenges — and they are more acute for Gen X than for any generation that preceded it.

The path through them requires more than an investment strategy. It requires an income plan — one that accounts for essential expenses, healthcare costs, longevity risk, and the possibility that retirement will last longer than expected. For many near-retirees, that plan has not yet been built. Building it is the work that matters most right now.

Source: Global Atlantic. Read the original release.

f=”https://www.athene.com/2026-retirement-outlook” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Read the original release.