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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a 50-something, I’m finding the ultimate divide is when you start seeing people announcing retirements in their 50s. They go on to sit on boards or serve as trustees of institutions. Some of it may be requiring different levels of money to feel comfortable retiring, but being able to leave the corporate grind in your 50s is winning.[/quote]

This.  Good friends retiring at 55 and 53, husband and wife.  $2m home paid off, kids out of college and independent, healthy investments of stock and RE, and annual $250k income (guaranteed).  
Very happy for them…they won the race. Hoping we can get out in early 60s.  [/quote]

I am an older millennial. I suspect we won't have this problem the way older generations did. Either you have family wealth or you don't and where we are, you already know who has it. I know very few "self-made" people. [/quote]
DP.. you are still pretty young.

For us, the divide is not only income, but age of kids.  Most of my friends have kids about my kids' ages.  But, I have one friend who had kids much later. Their kids are still in ES. Mine are in HS. In four years, I will be an empty nester, while my friend is still dealing with PTSAs.  We plan on retiring in four years and traveling outside of peak summer time, like we used to pre-kids. My friend is stuck traveling around summer, like we used to be.  We talked about traveling together, but they have a lot longer to go before they can travel like we hope to.

Another friend was a sahm for 15 years, just went back into the workforce as her youngest hit HS.  Because they were single income for 15 years, they haven't been saving for retirement like we have been. So even when they become empty nesters in 2 years, they will have to continue working until 65 to save more now for retirement.

Yes, different life choices lead to a divide later on in life.[/quote]

Late 30s/early 40s means I am NOT pretty young. I have already run into very quiet reminders of my age at work. The point I was trying to make is that we all had our kids later, we all bought houses later (if we were lucky), we all have student debt--the people who made it, made it. My generation isn't going to retire. I don't care what you say about the fact I save over 10 percent of my salary with matching since I was 22 and I have multiple grad degrees. I don't know why the older generations don't get that we live on a different world and not a better one. I even worry about inheritances that millennials are supposed to get because that money will be gone from high health care and elder care expenses. That great transfer of wealth happened already (via trust funds) or it is not going to happen.[/quote]

There are plenty of counter examples of millennials who are doing quite well without direct generational wealth transfer.  I am the same age as you.  I graduated law school with no student loan debt because I picked schools that gave me money and my parents helped out a little.  DH had an athletic scholarship for undergrad and his consulting firm at the time paid for his MBA.  As millennials, we benefited from starting our careers during the great recession in that we bought our home and started investing in our 401ks and brokerage accounts at the bottom of the market.  Having kids later means we've never felt stressed about child care costs or 529 savings.  The thing that sets us back the most is that we're helping out our in laws; whereas, many of our peers receive gifts from their parents, so we have outflows where they have inflows, but we're still doing fine.  The key was saving a lot when we were young because now (well, not at the moment, but when the market recovers) we've got a big investment nut that is compounding, and that is where I see the divide getting bigger and bigger over time.    [/quote]

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