NewsBrief, July 2015 - Sandwiched In: What To Do When Everyone Depends On You - Northwestern Mutual Sandwiched In: What To Do When Everyone Depends On You - NM Article
This year, Millennials are expected to surpass Baby Boomers as the largest living generation of Americans, according to a recent Pew Research report. But there’s another group that is growing even faster—and that’s the so-called sandwich generation.
Social worker Dorothy Miller is widely credited with coining the phrase “sandwich generation” back in 1981 to describe middle-aged Americans who were being squeezed between the simultaneous demands of caring for their aging parents and supporting their dependent children. Since then, the ranks of those in the sandwich generation have been steadily growing as a result of shifting demographic and economic trends.
For one, longer life expectancy is increasing the number of Americans who have elderly parents, many of whom require costly nursing or in-home care. At the same time, many Americans who delayed having children until they were older now have kids who are either still at home or in college. Add to this the lingering impact of the recent recession: The unemployment rate for today’s young adults is nearly double the national rate, which means many Millennials are struggling to gain financial independence. It also means that some members of the sandwich generation also are providing financial support to grown children Zurich Prime review.
In fact, the Pew Research Center found that nearly half (47 percent) of Americans aged 40 to 60 have a parent over 65 and are also raising a dependent child or financially supporting an adult child. About one in seven (15 percent) of them are providing financial support to both. That support may have long-term implications.
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