Gen X Is Going To Retire At 65, ‘You’ll Never Hear Or See Them Again' — 38-Year-Old Says They’ll ‘Do What We Wish Boomers Would Do Now’

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Gen X has spent decades getting squeezed between bigger generations. Now, one 38-year-old says the group may have one final trick up its sleeve — disappearing.

Realtor Freddie Smith , 38, laid out his prediction in a TikTok about why he rarely talks about Gen X. His argument is pretty simple. Gen X is independent, uninterested in the culture-war noise and focused on one thing — making it to retirement.

"They are the most independent group of people that we will ever meet," Smith said in the TikTok. "They raise themselves. They've been independent their whole life."

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Smith said that independence could make Gen X's retirement look different from what many people expect.

"The Gen Xers are gonna do what we wish the boomers would do now," Smith said. "The Gen Xers at 65, 67, 70…you'll never hear or see them again."

His vision is retirees fishing, sitting in rocking chairs and generally staying out of the working world.

There's just one problem with the retirement-at-65 theory. The numbers suggest plenty of Gen Xers still have a ways to go.

Gen X generally refers to Americans born between 1965 and 1980. The oldest members are already in their early 60s, while the youngest are in their mid-40s.

Gen X workers had a median of $107,000 in household retirement-account savings, according to a Transamerica Institute survey in 2025. But 31% had less than $50,000 saved. Only 18% said they were very confident they could fully retire with a comfortable lifestyle.

And that doesn't exactly scream mass retirement at 65.

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Nearly 4 in 10 Gen X workers said they expected to retire at 70 or older or didn't plan to retire at all. More than half, 56%, expected to continue working in retirement.

A 2025 survey from Schroders found that just 16% of Gen X Americans ages 45 to 60 believed they had saved enough for retirement. Gen X respondents said they expected to need about $1.12 million for a comfortable retirement, compared with roughly $712,000 they expected to have saved.