Surprise, Gen X! History didn't end, your RRSP is tanking and the nihilism isn't fun anymore

They watched what was expected to beryllium the extremity of history; now, they're watching President Donald Trump align the United States with Russia, threaten Canada with annexation, and dial planetary tariffs up and down similar an indecisive contestant connected The Price is Right.

It's astir apt harmless to accidental not a azygous subordinate of Generation X, witnessing the Berlin Wall crumble successful 1989, imagined beingness would look similar this successful 2025.

Back then, the triumph of ideology and escaped markets implicit fascism and communism seemed decisive. The contiguous mightiness not person been the best, economically speaking, but the aboriginal looked, if not bright, astatine slightest stable. And the 1990s, for each the governmental nihilism that defined the Gen X era, ended up looking beauteous good, successful retrospect.

Fast guardant to 2025. Stuart Knetsch is successful his mid-50s and good into an IT career. He assumes the caller marketplace turmoil has done a fig connected his status savings, but he's been excessively acrophobic to analyse the harm successful detail. Besides, the hubby and begetter of two has much contiguous concerns. He worries Trump will trigger a planetary recession, which could pb to wide unemployment. And it's pugnacious to marque a vocation pivot at his age.

"What I'm seeing conscionable terrifies me, each azygous day," said Knetsch, who lives successful Cambridge, Ont.

"It's pugnacious to program a aboriginal for myself, my family, my kids, erstwhile it conscionable benignant of each looks hopeless close now."

His interest goes good beyond the ups and downs of the banal market, arsenic chaotic arsenic those swings person been. It's the implicit upending of a planetary bid that had defined his life to date.

Not that Gen X is unsocial successful facing this caller reality. Millennials are close determination with them, surviving done yet different humanities event, to the constituent that it's go a defining meme of their generation. Gen Z, meanwhile, has learned to header with acheronian humour as they conflict with precocious rates of slump and fears astir the future. (Boomers, meanwhile, report the highest levels of happiness.) 

Gen X folks, though, find themselves successful a life signifier with a confluence of challenges and overlapping anxieties. Many are inactive successful the heavy of demanding careers with a shortening runway to retirement. While eyeing their RRSPs nervously, immoderate are besides starting to gully down connected their kids' RESPs and caring for aging parents astatine the aforesaid time. This, successful ample part, is the "sandwich generation" compression that has agelong been documented. To a degree, it simply comes with the territory of being aged 45 to 64.

But for Gen X, it's much than that, too.

Being of this peculiar age, with their peculiar acceptable of beingness experiences, astatine this peculiar infinitesimal successful past (which didn't end, arsenic it turns out), means the procreation erstwhile notorious for its cynical and detached attitude has a peculiar mode of experiencing all that's going on.

'Uncharted territory'

Knetsch is the benignant of feline who has work a lot, studied history, and is "perpetually online," keeping up with the latest twists and turns of authorities arsenic they hap nowadays.

The 2nd Trump presidency, helium says, has him connected a "hamster wheel" of emotion.

"I deliberation we're wholly successful uncharted territory," helium said. "I don't deliberation we've had — well, not successful caller surviving memory, anyway — truthful galore pillars of the unchangeable planetary bid knocked retired each astatine once."

The day-to-day play and the hour-by-hour marketplace swings aside, his biggest interest is that the cumulative effect of each the U.S.-led destabilization volition beryllium a prolonged economical downturn — a interest shared by a increasing fig of economists, arsenic well.

"If it goes on the trajectory it's projecting, this is going to beryllium a longer betterment than I mightiness find I person patience for," said Knetsch, who had been hoping to discontinue successful 11 years but present isn't truthful definite what his aboriginal volition look like.

"In your darker moments, you wonderment wherefore you bothered astatine all," helium said. "I've been moving for implicit 30 years and, why? Like, should I conscionable instrumentality each of my savings and conscionable person a glorious infinitesimal of excess?"

His sons are 18 and 20 and helium worries astir their economical prospects, too. Buying a location seems unattainable for them and the household has half-joked astir each surviving unneurotic good into adulthood "because that's the lone mode we tin marque it affordable."

"And we were talking astir that before all this went sideways with Donald Trump," Knetsch said.

"It sounds incredibly selfish, but you cognize … you unrecorded your beingness and past each of a abrupt your aboriginal is conscionable yanked retired distant from you, and the aboriginal for my kids is yanked distant from them."

That's an acquisition Heidi Jaklin has had capable of, for 1 lifetime.

Thrice burned, present shy

Watching Trump's "liberation day" tariffs announcement and the monolithic marketplace turmoil it unleashed brought backmost achy memories for Jaklin. Now successful her precocious 50s, the Vancouver nonmigratory has felt burned, implicit and implicit again, arsenic she's tried to prevention for her aboriginal retirement.

Her archetypal acquisition came successful her aboriginal 30s, erstwhile she had conscionable near a occupation successful Ontario and taken her humble company-backed pension program with her, conscionable successful clip to beryllium struck by the archetypal of respective marketplace downturns.

"I retrieve watching that magnitude spell from similar $8,000 to $3,000," said Jaklin.

She said she was burned again by the 360networks meltdown of the aboriginal 2000s. The Vancouver-based fibre-optics institution launched an archetypal nationalist offering with large fanfare successful April 2000, attracting the involvement of mundane Canadian investors.

At first, the company's stock terms surged — conscionable arsenic the dot-com bubble was starting to burst. The beardown archetypal trading made 360networks the second-most-valuable communications firm in Canada, based connected marketplace capitalization, but the enactment didn't past long. By the summertime of 2001, it had filed for bankruptcy and informed shareholders they would not "recover immoderate worth from their investments."

The 3rd and last straw for Jaklin was the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, erstwhile she mislaid adjacent much wealth successful the banal marketplace portion governments bailed retired large banks, security companies and concern firms.

"I felt similar I was feeding a rhythm wherever a clump of privileged men were making wealth astatine my disbursal and I benignant of had capable of it," Jaklin said. "And astatine that point, I thought I mightiness miss retired connected banal gains that I would person different got, but I'd had enough. I'll conscionable spell GICs and bonds and beryllium arsenic harmless arsenic I tin beryllium and bash the champion that I tin do."

Her champion investment, she said, turned retired to beryllium her condo successful Vancouver, but cashing it retired volition travel with mixed feelings.

"When the clip comes, I volition merchantability the flat and spell unrecorded successful Nova Scotia with my favourite sister," she said.

"No complaints. But I bash emotion my home. I bash emotion my neighborhood. I would emotion to enactment here, if I didn't request the wealth that's wrapped up successful the flat to unrecorded on."

The fragile decade

For those inactive invested in the banal market, determination are plentifulness of advisors retired determination who urge staying the course, adjacent successful choppy seas.

That gets trickier, of course, arsenic you're approaching the rocky shores of retirement.

The past 5 years of moving beingness and the archetypal 5 years of status are sometimes referred to arsenic "the fragile decade," arsenic fiscal decisions and marketplace conditions tin person an outsize interaction connected the savings meant to past the remainder of your life.

"Having aggregate down oregon antagonistic years successful those archetypal years of retirement, that tin person a truly lasting effect," said Evan Riddell, an investment advisor with the Riddell Wealth Management Team astatine Richardson Wealth.

Known arsenic a sequence-of-returns risk, Riddell said it's "a truly large happening for retirees, oregon those facing retirement."

Nancy Burns is keenly alert of the hazard and weighing delaying status altogether.

In her 50s, with a girl successful Grade 11, the Saskatoon nonmigratory says she's been watching the caller marketplace turmoil with apprehension, knowing it whitethorn propulsion a wrench successful her champion laid plans.

"If the markets are successful truly unsmooth shape, I'm acold much inclined to springiness it a accidental to bounce back," she said. "I wouldn't privation to beryllium successful a presumption wherever I had to pat into my status savings and person it beryllium astatine its low."

She feels fortunate to beryllium self-employed, portion her spouse works a much accepted job, giving them a operation of flexibility and stability. Retirement isn't connected the contiguous horizon; they anticipation to get their girl acceptable up successful post-secondary acquisition earlier she afloat calls it quits.

She had, astatine 1 point, imagined making the status determination wholly connected her ain terms. But she's realizing, lately, that external forces whitethorn person much of a relation to play.

And she's philosophical astir it.

"If I person to enactment different 2 oregon 3 oregon 4 oregon 5 years — I don't truly privation to enactment five much years — but if I person to enactment an further 5 years beyond what I primitively planned, I tin bash that," she said.

'Gen X is successful a weird spot'

By now, you whitethorn person noticed a taxable successful each these Gen Xers' attitudes toward the situations they face: On the 1 hand, they person genuine fears and frustrations; connected the other, they cognize it could beryllium worse.

In a word: "meh."

Andrew Potter has immoderate thoughts astir this. He's an author, erstwhile journalist, subordinate prof astatine the Max Bell School of Public Policy astatine McGill University and, successful his spare time, a chronicler of each things Gen X connected Substack.

"Gen X is successful a weird spot. We similar to kick astir the Baby Boomers and truthful on, but we were the past benignant of procreation that had a definite acceptable of privileges, I think, astir baseline vocation expectations, truthful I wouldn't privation to get into kvetching mode," helium said.

Sure, his ain RRSP has taken a hit. But Potter looks astatine the economical prospects of the students helium teaches and, suddenly, mediate property doesn't look truthful bad.

"All things considered, I'm little disquieted astir maine than I am, frankly, about, the 20-somethings, who I deliberation are really successful a spot of a pickle."

In the strictly fiscal sense, helium says, Gen X isn't too severely positioned to past whatever's coming next. It's successful the intelligence consciousness wherever galore mightiness struggle, arsenic the full social, governmental and economical discourse wrong which the "stick it to the man" cognition that defined their procreation has abruptly been turned connected its head.

"I do deliberation that the 'end of history' infinitesimal that truly started with the autumn of Berlin Wall successful 1989, it locks you successful a definite knowing of the mode the satellite is," Potter said.

"Dissent, non-conformity and Gen X cynicism seemed benignant of harmless … but you could spend to beryllium truthful culturally playful and cynical and non-conformist because, ultimately, the strategy is fundamentally stable."

Today, arsenic the strategy is shaken astatine its foundations, it forces a rethink of everything.

"Right now," helium said, "cynicism doesn't look truthful chill … because you spot what genuine nihilism is. And I deliberation that's what's happening down south, in particular. There's a cardinal nihilism that's really rather scary."