The Sandwiched Generation
The blog Money, Matter, and More Musings has a post The Sandwiched Generation.
It begins with:
A few days ago, CBS Evening News ran an article titled “Caregivers Rise to the Challenge” which featured some families that were struggling to keep up with taking care of their aged parents (in terms of time and money)….
Then the commentary:
People who are struggling to maintain their own financial well being, in addition to looking after their parents and their kids, are what I call the “sandwiched generation”.
Notice the sort-of-treadmill effect in the above example? Stacy doesn’t have anything saved for her retirement - which effectively means that her children will probably have to spend their savings towards her post-retirement well being - which very likely means that they will probably have less for themselves in future. It’s an interesting cycle (played out all too well in most developing countries) - one which will not come to an end unless one of the generations takes the additional pains of providing for their parents as well as their kids.
continues…
I guess we would all ask these questions to ourselves at some point of time - whether our parents are in a good financial position or not. With what intensity you ponder over these question probably depends on your culture, temperament, and your personal relations with your parents, but most of you will think about this for sure.
It is an issue that tends to sneak up on most of us. Our parents are independent and our kids becoming so. It is a hard line to think about how you backfill for either.
I helped the younger as best I could.
Now turn to the older… less about finances than health and social support.
They are outliving their friends. A whole different type of sandwich.
