Gen X is redefining what retirement means: ‘We’re not afraid to blow up our lives.’

Gen X has never really cared for rules. We’re the Ferris Bueller and Breakfast Club generation who thinks rules are for suckers and old people, right? But what does that mean for us now as we head toward retirement? According to Caren Magill, the Gen Xer behind the Retire(ish) YouTube channel, retirement for the “forgotten generation” will bear little resemblance to the Boomers’. As Magill points out, “We were always very independent and borderline feral, so why would that change in retirement?” “I find that Baby Boomers are probably the last generation of folks who get older in a very sort of templatized way,” says Magill. For the most part, Boomers had traditional career trajectories and bought houses along a traditional timeline. Many had pensions. Their road to retirement was pretty clear. For Gen X, that road looks quite different. In fact, Doc’s line in Back to the Future pretty much sums it up: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” We’re willing to blow up our lives for the life we really want “Number one, we are not afraid to blow up whatever our lives have looked like to this point in order to make our lives look different,” Magill says. Many Gen Xers want to retire early, but that may not be financially feasible where we live. In the United States, in particular, healthcare costs without employer-provided health insurance can make early retirement financially unfeasible. “I’m seeing so many people of my age and generation who are exploring retirement overseas, whether it’s permanently or just for the next 10 years until they can come back and get on Medicare,” says Magill. “I’m also seeing a lot of, you know, van life folks who are Gen X and who are, like, selling their four-bedroom houses for something much smaller and more agile where they can get around and enjoy their lives while we’re still young and able to do that.” She says she’s also seeing Gen Xers who aren’t necessarily ready to retire yet but are blowing up their lives to do something completely different, like going back to school or training for something totally new. Gen X is also aging differently than Boomers Magill also points out that “older” seems to be getting younger. “I feel like the 55 of today is a lot younger than the 55 of, let’s say, 10, 15 years ago,” she says. “I feel like we maybe look younger, we think younger, we think differently, and we are thinking outside of the box.” Many Gen Xers are creating social media content, sharing their lives, thoughts, and feelings about aging, and their plans for their second act. It’s refreshing to see middle-aged people talk about these things and open up conversations around retirement. “I love that so many of us are doing things our own way and recreating retirement so that it works for us,” says Magill, “rather than us feeling like we have to fit into some sort of proverbial box.” Custom-made retirement aligned with our individuality Magill clarifies that these are just her thoughts as a Gen Xer talking to other Gen Xers, but they make a lot of sense. Why would we approach our retirement any differently than we’ve approached life so far? “I think that sometimes we can get in our own head about retirement and what the next phase of life should look like,” she adds. “And we hear what we should have saved at this point in life, and maybe we think, you know, I’m so behind, and it’s never going to work for me. I’m never going to be able to have this.” However, she points out that what we have in our retirement accounts is only one side of the equation. “The other side of the equation is what you actually need in retirement,” she says, “and some of us don’t need a lot. Some of us have already paid off our house. Some of us are willing to blow up our lives in the expensive areas that we live [in] and try something different for five years or 10 years in order to have our time and freedom back.” Many of us won’t have a traditional-looking retirement, and we shouldn’t. We’ll do what we need to do to move toward the life we want as we age. “Let’s face it, we’ve all worked long enough, and we’re getting old enough that we have lost the majority of our Fs that were there to give in the first place,” Magill concludes. “And at this point, we just want to be happy.” You can follow Retire(ish) on YouTube for more.