There is no question that Millennials are entering this economic crisis with less wealth than earlier generations had at the same age. In 1990, when Boomers were in their early to mid-30s, they owned 21% of US wealth. In Q4 of 2019, Millennials owned just 2.7%. I have been writing about the shift of net worth toward older age brackets for years. One result of this shift is that the young are more vulnerable during times of economic hardship. See "The Graying of Wealth" and "The Graying of Wealth in One Picture."

But I am less worried about Millennials than I am about Gen-Xers. Millennials are still young, and a lot can change economically and politically between now and when they retire. Gen-Xers, on the other hand, have meager retirement savings--and are themselves lagging in net worth--while getting very close to retirement. They have less time to recover their losses. Additionally, Gen-Xers rely more on income from gig jobs than any other generation. See "Xers Rely on Gig Work Income." The pandemic has particularly hard hit the gig-economy as it relies heavily on face-to-face interaction, which social distancing has ended.

While the CARES Act opens up unemployment benefits for head-of-household gig workers, it's hard to see contract work recovering rapidly until the economic shutdown is fully lifted--and that may take a while. In another bow to Gen-Xers, the CARES Act allows workers to withdraw up to $100K early from their 401-k's and IRAs without penalty. That may help relieve the Xers' current income needs. But it will condemn many of them to even greater retirement hardship down the road.