Millennials Are Spread Thin as the Newest Members of the “Sandwich Generation”
Key Takeaways
Millennials are taking on multigenerational caregiving responsibilities with less financial security than the Gen Xers who are currently doing so — they’re 5 points less likely to have more than $50,000 invested.
The shares of millennials who travel and attend concerts and sporting events have all increased at least 12 points since 2022, suggesting that they’re not giving up experiences due to financial or logistical constraints of caregiving.
Millennial women stand to bear more caregiving burden than men, and they’re 8 points less likely to have a positive outlook about their personal finances.
In the early 2010s, if you asked a millennial what it was like to be a member of a “sandwich generation,” they may have recounted tales of avocado-filled, sriracha-mayo-topped sourdough-wrapped delicacies. And while millennials certainly embraced sandwiches of all stripes during their early adulthood, the moniker of “sandwich generation” takes on a completely different meaning for them in 2025.
Now, millennials are moving into a life stage that requires providing or contributing to care for both young children as well as aging parents — metaphorically sandwiched between the two, and placing financial and emotional burdens squarely on their shoulders just as they’ve begun to achieve solid footing in their adult lives. But the growing pressures haven’t dampened their ever-optimistic millennial spirit. At least not yet.
Gen Xers welcome millennials to club “sandwich”
The sandwich generation concept is not a new one: Gen Xers have been the cohort primarily dealing with the competing needs of multigenerational care in recent years. But the life stage has become more challenging due to societal shifts — older adults live longer, raising more health challenges, and people wait longer to become parents, meaning their children are younger (and more financially and emotionally demanding) when eldercare becomes a concern. So while Gen Xers are aging out of the demographic, millennials are entering it, facing these challenges along with their own generational burdens.
Unfortunately this is happening just as millennials are finally starting to catch up to their Gen X predecessors when it comes to financial health. Famously stunted when it comes to achieving the financial trappings of adulthood, this generation has now just about equaled their older counterparts when it comes to income.
Millennials have equaled Gen Xers in income, but lag in investments
Millennials’ income breaks largely align with their generational predecessors’, with the largest difference being a two-point swing between those who make between $50,000 to $99,999 annually and those who earn $100,000 or more. And certainly this factor helps millennials do some of the things that earlier generations had already done at a younger age: 46% are homeowners (though this still trails Gen Xers by 8 percentage points), and 53% are parents of children in their household.
Their late financial start, though, is reflected in their comparatively low level of investments. While the same share of millennials and Gen Xers have nothing invested, those who do are more likely to have a lesser amount — specifically under $50,000 — set aside. This may come into play as the generation is forced to dip into reserves to manage the cost of care for multiple generations.
Millennials aren’t giving up on experiences just yet
Financial concerns related to caregiving may be lurking in millennials’ near future, but it hasn’t yet impacted their YOLO lifestyle. This generation has long prioritized experiences over possessions, and despite looming caregiving costs, the shares who have taken leisure trips, gone to the movies, and attended sporting events and concerts have grown significantly in the last three years. This suggests that millennials will be loath to give up these experiences as they continue to take on caregiving responsibilities, and may even look for other areas to trade off if needed.
More millennials are participating in the experience economy
One nuance to note, though, is the comparative growth between the share who said they had gone to a movie theater in the past year (up 27 points since 2022) compared to the other behaviors that involve a higher financial investment — the share who had taken a leisure trip grew 12 points in that same time period.
Some of this is certainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as for many, going to the movies didn’t feel worth the risk of exposure in 2022 when content could be streamed at home, compared with more bucket list vacations, concerts or sporting events. But this also may reflect the fact that the generation is taking a more discerning eye to experiences and prioritizing those that come at a lower price tag.
Financial concern looms, especially for millennial women
While millennials are overall more bullish about their finances than other generations, optimism has taken a dip since the pandemic and not yet fully recovered. The share of millennials overall who say their personal finances will be better next year is now 48%, compared with 53% in January of 2020. What’s more notable though, is that the gender gap has widened in this time. While millennial men are now 3 points less likely to say their finances will improve in the coming year, millennial women are 8 points less likely to say the same.
The gender gap is widening when it comes to financial optimism
Some of this is certainly due to the outsized burden pandemic childcare wrought on millennial women’s careers, which is an essential part of the caregiving equation. Millennial mothers were much more likely than fathers to leave the workplace during the pandemic due to caregiving responsibilities, and even those who have returned are catching up for the missed time when it comes to salary and career advancement.
That said, the burden of eldercare is more likely to fall on women as well, so it’s likely that these women are looking realistically at a future with healthcare costs eating up more of their salary and possibly their savings than it had in the past.
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Lindsey Roeschke is an analyst whose work focuses on behavior and expectations of consumers in the travel & hospitality and food & beverage categories, particularly through a generational and cultural lens. Prior to joining Morning Consult, she served as a director of consumer and culture analysis at Gartner. In addition to her research and advisory background, Lindsey has more than a decade of experience in the advertising world. She has lived and worked in seven cities across four continents.
