Income Gap

The average Gen Xer is on track to face $1,700 a month income gap in retirement. The average baby boomers will fall a whopping $2,100 a month short. Those may sound like insurmountable numbers, but don't throw in the towel yet.

As Gen-Xers hit middle age and start thinking more seriously about retirement planning, the warnings they're hearing about how far behind they are may make their situation sound more dire than it is.

Generations of Americans are facing threadbare finances in retirement: Judging by what people say they expect to spend versus what they expect to take in, the disparity between income and expenses will be severe.

The young, upwardly mobile professional was the defining American character in the 1980s, and caused us to coin the word "Yuppies." Today, the dominant trajectory is the reverse: Downward mobility, unemployment and poverty are the defining themes. We're in the Dumps -- so are Dumpies the new Yuppies?

America's big income disparity is creating an economy that's dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthiest. As a result, economic growth may increasingly mean 95% of Americans are still not doing better financially.