Baby Boomers may be the richest generation in American history, but that doesn’t mean they have the money when the bills are due.
Many of them enter retirement still carrying credit card balances and other debts, turning what looks like a strong balance sheet into a tighter monthly budget. The problem gets exacerbated as Boomers retire: their paychecks disappear, and they become reliant on Social Security and pensions to cover both everyday living expenses and debt payments.
“Someone’s net worth and cash flow are two very different things,” Ashley Morgan, a Northern Virginia bankruptcy and debt attorney who works with consumers facing financial and credit problems, told Fortune.
Boomers had first built extraordinary wealth as home prices and stock markets soared, going from holding just 19.5% of household wealth in 1989 to more than half of it in 2026, according to Federal Reserve data. They also hold a record of nearly $90 trillion in wealth in 2026—twice that of Gen X’s household wealth, and more than quadruple that of Millennials’—despite making up just 20% of the population.
But that wealth is unevenly held, and riddled with debts.
