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Why saving for retirement has become a challenge for the “sandwich generation”
Dracut, Massachusetts — Dinnertime at the Gomez residence in the suburban Boston town of Dracut means feeding three generations.
“It’s crazy,” Alicia Gomez told CBS News of the seven family members who live together under one roof. “We’re raising my niece and nephew. My mother lives with us and my sister lives with us.”
Alicia, 56, is the chief operating officer for a nonprofit, and her 58-year-old husband Chu Gomez works in logistics. They are part of the so-called “sandwich generation” of workers who support both young relatives and aging parents.
“I equate it to a turkey club sandwich, because a club sandwich has a lot of layers, and we have a lot of layers,” Alicia said.
Intergenerational arrangements like this account for roughly five million U.S. households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They can easily wreak havoc on retirement plans.
“We were thinking 62, we can retire at 62, and still be young,” Chu said. “And the other day she says, ‘You’re going to work till 70, right?’ I’m like, ‘I guess so.'”
According to labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School for Social Research in New York, people in their 50s need to put away as much of their earnings as possible.
“In your 50s, you may be pressured to help your adult children,” Ghilarducci said. “You may be pressured to even help your older parents. But don’t sacrifice your own retirement savings.”
The Gomezes are saving, but they are also more than $500,000 in debt, including house, car and college loans for their two daughters.
Chu doesn’t expect to have those college loans paid off until he’s 71.
“Yeah, we’ll have those for a long time,” Chu said.
While the Gomezes have a nest egg, it’s not a big one. For those in their 50s, there are several variables to consider. They include having honest conversations about how long any assistance for relatives, such as older children, will last. Other options to consider: temporarily reducing retirement contributions to pay down any high-interest debt, like credit cards. Then, importantly, boosting savings.
Alicia says the couple makes enough money to cover their bills.
“We have enough, but it’s not where we should be,” Alicia said. “God forbid, if one of us gets sick or we are laid off, what will that do to us financially?”
Both Alicia and Chu were in fact laid off in their 50s.
“Well, people in their 50s have a really high chance of losing their career job,” Ghilarducci said. “So, watch your back, keep your job.”
Alicia picked up consulting work and then was rehired, but it took Chu six months during the pandemic to find a new job.
“When you get laid off…you can’t do the 401k,” Chu said. “So that was six months of 401k that was not being put in there.”
During that period, Chu missed out on $13,000 in 401k contributions, which would have been worth roughly $40,000 by the time he retires, according to calculations by John Kelley and the CBS News data team. That could have helped cover some retirement costs, like health insurance. On average, a retired 65-year-old should expect to spend a total of about $165,000 on health care throughout retirement, according to a Fidelity survey.
The retirement pressure never lets up for the Gomezes.
“We didn’t know we were going to have to care for so many family members,” Alicia said. “So, the unexpected…was a wake up call…for us.”
Three people were killed and several more seriously injured Wednesday when a bridge in Mississippi that was closed nearly a month ago collapsed while a work crew was prepping it for demolition, authorities said.
The bridge over the Strong River on State Route 149 in Simpson County, about 40 miles south of Jackson, had been closed to traffic since Sept. 18 as part of a bridge replacement project, the Mississippi Department of Transportation said in a news release.
Gov. Tate Reeves said in a post on social media late Wednesday that first responders from the county and “other state assets have been on the scene at the tragedy” where they’d confirmed at least three fatalities and multiple injuries.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a social media post late Wednesday that the Federal Highway Administration was “engaging state officials concerning” the “premature collapse during demolition of a bridge on State Route 149 in Mississippi.”
Simpson County Sheriff Paul Mullins had previously told WLBT-TV three people were killed and four critically injured.
Terry Tutor, the Simpson County coroner, told the New York Times that seven men were working on the bridge, using heavy machinery to tear it down, when it gave way and plummeted nearly 40 feet. He said three of the men died, and four were injured, the Times reported.
Mullins and Tutor didn’t immediately respond to messages Wednesday night from The Associated Press.
A call to the construction company, T.L. Wallace Construction, was unanswered Wednesday evening, and it was not possible to leave a message.
Department of Transportation spokesperson Anna Ehrgott said the agency “would share more information with the public as it becomes available.”
The department said one of its inspectors was at the work site when the bridge collapsed, and that person was unharmed.
The U.S. military conducted airstrikes on several Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bombers were part of an operation to conduct “precision strikes” on five underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
“U.S. forces targeted several of the Houthis’ underground facilities housing various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region,” Austin said.
Lloyd said he authorized the strikes at the direction of President Biden.
This marks the latest in several such U.S. airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed Houthi militant group in retaliation for Houthi missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Earlier this month, U.S. Central Command reported that U.S. aircraft and warships had struck 15 targets containing Houthi offensive military capabilities.
The U.S., U.K. and its allies have conducted several rounds of joint strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen dating back to mid-January.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have conducted dozens of missile and drone attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in what it says is a response to the Israel-Hamas war. Those attacks caused major supply chain disruptions worldwide. The Houthis have sank two commercial vessels, and a missile attack in March on a Liberian-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden killed three people.
Houthi militants hijacked an Israeli-linked cargo ship last November, taking crew members hostage.
And in an escalation of events, the Houthis directly struck downtown Tel Aviv with a drone in July which killed one person and injured eight others. That attack prompted Israel to retaliate with its own airstrikes in Yemen.
In his statement Lloyd said that “for over a year” the Houthis “have recklessly and unlawfully attacked U.S. and international vessels transiting the Red Sea, the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis’ illegal attacks continue to disrupt the free flow of international commerce, threaten environmental catastrophe, and put innocent civilian lives and U.S. and partner forces’ lives at risk.”
In January, the Biden administration declared the Houthis to be a “specially designated global terrorist group.”
contributed to this report.
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