The Financial Pressures of The Sandwich Generation with Jennifer Owens
The Jesse Mecham Show
YNAB
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the Baby Boomer generation rapidly aging into retirement, more and more Generation X and older Millennials face some tough financial questions: how do you financial support parents that need medical care, or long-term assistance, but cannot afford it? Should you support kids after college by allowing them to live at home while they get their financial feet under them? Should you save for your own retirement first, or help your parents/kids first?
Jennifer Owens calls this conundrum the "sandwich generation," people facing financial pressure from supporting both parents and children at the same time. While she does not have any hard and fast answers to these questions -- it's a complex problem, with many factors to consider -- she does believe that talking about the problem and sharing the challenges helps people know they aren't alone.
Jennifer has written extensively about the sandwich generation, and she is also working with a new app called Firstly which helps families manage supporting their children and parents as they navigate different stages of life.
https://firstly.com/about-firstly/
https://firstly.com/articles/how-in-the-world-did-i-end-up-in-the-sandwich-generation/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, Weinabbers, my name is Jesse Meakum, and this is podcast number 526 for Weinab, |
| 0:09.4 | where we teach you four rules to help you stop if you paycheck to paycheck. |
| 0:12.9 | Get out of debt and save more money today. |
| 0:15.1 | I talk with Jennifer Owens. |
| 0:17.0 | She is an editor, writer, and producer focused on women wellness and work. |
| 0:21.3 | Specifically, we talk about the sandwich generation. |
| 0:24.7 | She was the Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy of HealthyWomen.org and launched Spring |
| 0:29.4 | Street, the place for smart women. |
| 0:31.0 | She served as editorial director of Working Mother Media and found the Working Mother Research |
| 0:35.3 | Institute, home to the Working Mother 100 Best Companies. |
| 0:39.0 | In 2013, she launched National Flex Day, an annual spotlight on the benefits of flexible |
| 0:43.6 | work policies for employees. |
| 0:45.6 | She's done a lot of great work. |
| 0:47.6 | Specifically today, I talk with Jennifer about her own life and what it's like to be |
| 0:53.0 | in the sandwich generation. |
| 0:54.6 | And that is the spot where you are between caring for kids and caring for maybe aging |
| 1:00.8 | elderly parents and the demands and stresses that we deal with. |
| 1:05.3 | I did not know this was a thing, but then I realized I was part of it. |
| 1:08.5 | So we just have a nice, very casual chat about what it is, what it's like to be in the |
| 1:14.3 | throes of it. |
| 1:16.0 | No real prescriptive answers on how to navigate this, but I think being eyes wide open helps |
| 1:21.5 | all the while. |
... |
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