BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) CEO Larry Fink has been open about what’s going wrong when it comes to younger generations and money stress. Fink said in his 2024 annual letter to investors that Gen Z and Millennials felt “economically anxious” because, in their view, older generations built systems that worked for themselves and left everyone else to figure it out.
Fink doesn’t dismiss that frustration. He agrees with it.
He wrote that younger Americans believe Baby Boomers “have focused on their own financial well-being to the detriment of who comes next,” adding plainly, “And in the case of retirement, they’re right.”
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Fink’s argument starts with a simple reality: people are living much longer, but retirement systems haven’t kept up.
He says retirement today is “a much harder proposition than it was 30 years ago. And it’ll be a much harder proposition 30 years from now.” Longer lives mean more years to fund, just as traditional pensions have disappeared and Social Security faces growing strain.
Fink says that the message many workers receive today is effectively: you’re on your own. Unlike past generations, fewer workers have pensions that promise steady income for life. Instead, they’re handed 401(k)s and told to save, invest, and somehow guess how long their money needs to last.
That uncertainty hits younger workers especially hard. Fink wrote that nearly half of Americans between 55 and 65 have nothing saved in personal retirement accounts. For younger generations watching inflation rise, housing get more expensive, and wages lag, the idea of building a secure retirement can feel unrealistic.
Fink connects that pressure directly to generational anger. Millennials and Gen Z aren’t just stressed about money today. They’re worried the future is stacked against them.
Fink says the biggest barrier to investing isn’t ignorance or apathy. It’s fear.
“No one lets their money sit in a stock or a bond for 30 or 40 years if they’re afraid the future is going to be worse than the present,” he wrote.
