Generational Wealth Gap


The Good Life - A Math Problem

Recently, I've been helping my mom clear out the apartment in New York where my family has lived for 26 years. It feels like the final item on the list of a long three year slough of life after the death of my dad.


In the process of cleaning, we discovered amazing pieces of the life my dad lived – often the pieces that we had only heard in offhand conversation and assumed there was some poetic flourishing to the details. But no, almost every incredible feat he told us about was validated among the artifacts: journals documenting his climb of Mt. Everest, story boards of his creative campaign pitches for Canadian Club whiskey and Kent cigarettes... It feels like a nice reminder that his life, as he described, had been quite good.


At least this is true for his young adult life before kids. Growing up with the stories of incredible trips, love affairs, job promotions and relocations to Paris... I assumed that my life would be just as interesting, if not even more successful as I built on top of his achievements.


Instead, I like many young Americans, have watched a lot of our economic opportunity disappear. I graduated college in 2013 with a prestigious degree and over $120,000 in student loan debt. I got a highly coveted job at a company I loved working for, and yet I couldn't afford to rent a room in a NYC apartment. In fact, I wouldn't have been able to afford it even if I didn't have to pay $1200 in student loans each month. My salary was only $35,000 a year.


It took me four years of heads-down focus to finally have a salary that allowed me to move in to a Brooklyn apartment with two roommates.


At every key life milestone, I feel like I'm just getting up to speed and catching my breath looking ahead at the next peak: moving in with a partner, getting married, having kids, raising kids in a city... and the math just doesn't add up.


In so many areas of my life, my parents have been my guiding light, however now it feels like comparing apples to oranges – Kent Golds to KOOL menthols. Not only are the times of coming of age different, but so are the levels of government support, the career opportunities, and the salaries.


Source: JP Morgan via Scott Galloway

  • In 1989, Americans under 35 had a net worth 2x their annual income. Today, that multiple has halved: Their net worth equals their income.

  • For those over 35, the trend reverses. Our nation’s oldest now have wealth worth 14x their income, up from 9x in 1989.

  • What does this mean? In three decades, the old have gotten almost twice as wealthy, while the young have become twice as poor.


If you look at the wealth to income ratio, it's clear that younger people have become poorer over time as older people have become wealthier. Through the work I do at CIRKEL, I know that this paints an unfairly rosy picture of older professionals who struggle with employment. Many people over 50 are not seeing these levels of wealth, and I fight everyday to create opportunity for them too. I also know how much tension there is among the generations, and I believe that financial opportunity is the lynchpin that persists these social, political, and economic ruptures.


My wish is for every generation to age with economic potential and leave the door open behind them for future generations to enjoy fair opportunity to live a good life.