Quick Read
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Goldman Sachs (GS) retirement survey found that 67% of working Americans report too many monthly expenses are hindering retirement savings, with housing costs rising from 21% of income in 2000 to 36% in 2025, while childcare jumped from 10% to 25% and private college tuition from 9% to 33% over the same period.
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Rising costs in housing, healthcare, education, and childcare have outpaced wage growth for two decades and are projected to continue through 2035, forcing younger generations—over 75% of Millennials and 70% of Gen Z—to delay major life milestones and prioritize competing financial obligations over retirement savings.
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Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and its latest retirement survey quantified something millions of households already feel: 67% of working Americans say too many monthly financial expenses are hurting their ability to save for retirement. The firm calls it the “Financial Vortex,” the pull of housing, healthcare, childcare, and student loans that has taken a larger share of income since 2000.
The report shows exactly how that squeeze formed. The cost of home ownership rose from 21% of income in 2000 to 36% in 2025, renting climbed from 18% to 29%, childcare from 10% to 25%, public college from 8% to 16%, private college from 9% to 33%, and family healthcare coverage from 12% to 33%. These increases have narrowed the gap between income and expenses, leaving less room for retirement savings.
The savings rate is telling the same story
The report does not include BEA savings rate data, so the focus shifts to what workers themselves report. Competing priorities are widespread. Financial hardship affects 64% of workers. Caring for and financially supporting family members affects 62%. Credit card debt affects 58%. Paying down existing loans affects 57%. Time out of the workforce affects 55%.
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These pressures show up across generations and form the core of the Vortex. The report also shows that inflation in key household categories has risen faster than headline CPI for decades and is projected to continue outpacing wages through 2035. Tuition, medical care, hospital services, and childcare have all grown at multiples of overall inflation. These are the expenses that absorb raises before they ever reach savings accounts.
The expenses doing the squeezing
The report highlights how rising costs have reshaped major life milestones. The median age of first marriage has climbed. The average age of first‑time mothers has risen. The average age of first‑time homebuyers has moved sharply higher. These shifts reflect affordability challenges and the need to establish financial stability before taking on major commitments.
The report also shows that retirement itself is getting more expensive. Average expenditures for retirees have grown at 3.6% annually since 2000. The average length of retirement has increased from 17.5 years in 2000 to 19.2 years in 2023 and is projected to rise further. The total cost of retirement is projected to grow at 4% annually. These structural increases explain why discretionary saving is the first thing to give way.
Younger workers carry more of the weight
The Vortex falls unevenly across generations. The report shows that more than 75% of Millennials and more than 70% of Gen Z say competing priorities materially constrain their retirement savings. Gen X sits above 50%. Baby Boomers sit at around 30%. These generational differences mirror the escalation in costs and the growing prevalence of financial obligations that absorb a larger share of income. The report does not include a paycheck‑to‑paycheck statistic, so that claim has been removed. The report shows that younger workers face the steepest headwinds and that these pressures compound over time.
Building wealth when the budget will not budge
The Goldman report quantifies several adjustments that matter when the monthly cash flow is fixed. The first is the role of protected lifetime income; the report models how integrating insurance‑based products, such as annuities, into a retirement income plan can increase the income generated from the same pool of savings. The second is the role of personalized planning. Retirees with personalized plans show a 27% higher savings‑to‑income ratio. Workers classified as having high Financial Grit hold 49% more retirement savings. These findings highlight that behavior and structure influence outcomes even when income is tight.
What to do about it
For households living in the Vortex, three patterns emerge from the data:
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Employer 401(k) matches represent an immediate 50% to 100% return on contributions, the highest-yield component of most retirement frameworks.
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Income-producing assets within retirement accounts, including dividend-index funds, REITs, and private-market or alternative sleeves, target the 50-basis-point premium identified in Goldman’s analysis.
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Partial annuitization at retirement, rather than pure 4% withdrawal, generates materially more income from the same balance per the Goldman blending analysis.
The Vortex is structural. Housing, healthcare, and education costs have outrun wages for two decades, and BEA data shows that pattern continuing into 2026. The lever workers still control is how existing savings are positioned to compound.
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