Baby Boomers may be the richest generation in American history, but that doesn’t mean they have the money when the bills are due.
Many of them enter retirement still carrying credit card balances and other debts, turning what looks like a strong balance sheet into a tighter monthly budget. The problem gets exacerbated as Boomers retire: their paychecks disappear, and they become reliant on Social Security and pensions to cover both everyday living expenses and debt payments.
“Someone’s net worth and cash flow are two very different things,” Ashley Morgan, a Northern Virginia bankruptcy and debt attorney who works with consumers facing financial and credit problems, told Fortune.
Boomers had first built extraordinary wealth as home prices and stock markets soared, going from holding just 19.5% of household wealth in 1989 to more than half of it in 2026, according to Federal Reserve data. They also hold a record of nearly $90 trillion in wealth in 2026—twice that of Gen X’s household wealth, and more than quadruple that of Millennials’—despite making up just 20% of the population.
But that wealth is unevenly held, and riddled with debts.
The top 10% of Boomer households controlled 71% of the generation’s wealth in 2022, while nearly a third of Americans 55 and older have no retirement savings at all. Of those who do, about half have saved less than $100,000. Crucially, debt accompanies that wealth. Over half of households headed by someone 75 or older carried debt in 2022, up from 41.3% a decade earlier, according to a separate Federal Reserve analysis. Experian data show the average Boomer carries $92,619 in debt mostly stemming from credit cards.
“We’re seeing more and more people carrying high-interest debt later in life, which becomes a much bigger problem for them when they retire, and their income is fixed,” Michael McAuliffe, president of the nonprofit Family Credit Management that helps people manage debt, told Fortune.
Morgan said she regularly encounters older clients with significant home equity or retirement savings who are also juggling credit cards, car loans and other monthly obligations.
“Home equity has also created a false sense of financial security for some households,” Morgan explained. Housing wealth is a large part of that disconnect as decades of appreciation left many older homeowners sitting on valuable properties without the home equity itself materializing as income, unless it’s sold or borrowed against.
Older Americans are also driving the trend of people increasingly tapping the wealth tied up in their homes. After nearly 13 years of decline, balances on HELOCs have rebounded, rising 20% from their late-2021 low, according to the New York Fed. Of the roughly 1.8 million HELOCs originated in 2023 and the first half of 2024, about 57% went to borrowers aged 50 and older. But even selling the house isn’t always the best way to earn back money. Cashing out a highly appreciated home can trigger a Medicare surcharge known as IRMAA, meaning a large capital gain from a home sale can push up monthly Medicare premiums up hundreds of dollars.
Morgan explained higher property taxes and healthcare costs have pushed some retirees beyond the assumptions they made when planning for retirement years earlier. At her practice, she’s seen people who saved responsibly in the past that are now sometimes turning to credit cards when monthly costs outpace their retirement income.
The data reflects this. Medicare premiums have climbed faster than both general inflation and Social Security’s own cost-of-living adjustment. Long-term care costs have climbed even faster. Home care prices rose 7.9% over five years, nearly triple the rate of medical inflation, while nursing home costs jumped 25% between 2019 and 2024, outpacing the 22% income growth over-65 households saw in that same span
Some Boomers are also financially strained because they are supporting their families. Morgan said it’s not uncommon to see Boomers taking out debt or delaying their own retirement savings to help children and grandchildren pay for college, childcare and other family expenses.
“Unfortunately, we often see people borrow money to help support their kids and grandkids,” said Morgan. “Some Boomers are still working for years because they cannot afford to stop working.”
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