K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Younger Generations Lag Parents in Wealth-Building

Annie Lowrey:

Pearl Brady has a stable job with good benefits and holds two degrees, a bachelor's and a master's. But despite her best efforts, she has no savings, and worries that it will be years before she manages to start putting away money for a house, children and eventually retirement.

"The elite make economic policy to benefit themselves, alone. The more they pay us, the less is left to them to buy yachts and senators."

"I'm in that extremely nervous category," said Ms. Brady, 28, a Brooklynite who works for a union. "I know how much money I'm going to be making for the near term. I hope in my 30s and 40s to be able to save, but I have no idea how. It's scary."

Ms. Brady has plenty of company. A new study from the Urban Institute finds that Ms. Brady and her peers up to roughly age 40 have accrued less wealth than their parents did at the same age, even as the average wealth of Americans has doubled over the last quarter-century.

Related: Madison's public school status quo senior advocacy group: Grumps.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 17, 2013 2:14 AM
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