by: Ryan Wibberley

When most people talk about retirement, Baby Boomers are the primary demographic that comes to mind. After all, nearly a quarter of Americans were born between 1946 and 1964 — the typical definition of the Baby Boom generation. That’s more than 75 million people.

But Gen Xers (typically described as Americans aged 35 to 49) are close behind the Baby Boomers in terms of age. Today, many of them are closing in on 50. It’s high time Gen Xers start focusing on retirement and their retirement goals as well.

But a new study by Northwestern Mutual found that Gen X has some work to do. Of four generations surveyed in the study, Gen X was found to have the poorest financial habits. In addition to comprising the majority of “informal” planners, Gen X also has more spenders than savers compared to other generations and was the least likely to have more savings than debt.

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