Agili President, Michael Joyce, was recently interviewed for a story in Virginia Business about Gen X retirement saving.
Michael Joyce, Agili President
According to the article:
- More than 60% of Gen Xers are not confident in their abilities to achieve a comfortable retirement.
- More than 8 in 10 are concerned about the prospect of not receiving regular paychecks.
- An average 45% haven’t done any retirement planning.
- And 66% worry that their workplace retirement plan won’t grow as much as they will need.
Virginia Business subscribers can read the full article here.
Below are excerpts from the article:
Pension Plans Have Declined Over the Years
“Corporate-defined pension plans started to decline in the 1980s with the advent of 401(k) plans and are now rare and have been for the past 15 to 20 years,” says Michael Joyce, president of Agili, a financial planning firm in Richmond.
Most government employees still have pension plans, Joyce notes, some with cost-of-living increases but most without. However, only 14% of working Gen Xers have defined benefit pension plans, according to a 2023 report from the National Institute on Retirement Security.
The way that Gen Xers, the original latchkey kids, deal with self-reliance for retirement planning will set the precedent for generations to follow, experts say.
Gen Xers Would Be Wise to Save 10% During Peak Earning Years
“Clients in the [Gen X] age group are approaching their peak earnings years,” Joyce says. “It is very important to save at least 10% of their earnings and take advantage of company retirement plans — 401(k), 403(b), 457 — as well as maximizing other potential corporate perks, including nonqualified deferred compensations plans [tax-deferred payments made at a future date to allow for certain events], Health Savings Accounts and restricted stock awards.” He recommends they also take advantage of 529 plans for college savings.