America’s grandparents are getting rich.
And their grandkids are going broke.
A new study by the Federal Reserve found households over 75 got almost 40% wealthier in the last 3 years, hitting a record half a million dollars median.
While households under 35 lost a quarter of their wealth, dropping to just 33,000 – call it a used pickup truck.
These are inflation-adjusted, meaning old folks didn’t just beat inflation, they crushed it. While the young are condemned to sharing ramen with roommates because student loans always eat first.
How the Young got Fleeced
So what happened? The Federal Reserve created an economy where anybody with assets goes straight to the moon, anybody without goes straight to the gutter.
During Covid, Washington borrowed and spent trillions while the Fed pinned interest rates near zero and bought assets by the truckload. Home prices soared. Stocks soared. Houses bought for 35 grand in 19 hundred and 75 turned into million-dollar ATMs.
If you owned a house and stocks, congratulations. If you were saving for your first down payment, the starting line zoomed off past the horizon.
Then when the money printers inevitably sparked inflation the Fed slammed rates higher.
Existing homeowners kept their cheap mortgages.
First-time buyers got triple the mortgage payment on a half-million starter home. As in the bank won’t even return their phone calls until they make six figures – no mean feat at 28.
So young Americans face expensive housing, expensive credit, and the kind of down payment that makes a kidney seem like an underutilized asset.
Nearly 20% of families reported a late loan payment in 2025, up from 12% in 2022. The share spending at least 40% of income on debt payments rose to 8.6%.
All while seniors cross half a million.
What’s Next
There’s a budding civil war on mainstream news trying to set the young against seniors.
The kicker is it’s not seniors’ fault: They saved and invested, and those investments built the economy.
Meanwhile Social Security ripped them off, stealing 80% plus of their savings compared to what they’d have done with an IRA they actually own.
The villain is a Federal Reserve that pumps assets and leaves inflation for the poor and the young.
The answer isn’t tax grandma into eating cat food. Or cut her Social Security that already got raided. And will get raided harder for Gen X.
Instead, end the Fed’s cycle of inflation and hikes. Cut the deficits that feed inflation and push the Fed into perpetual rescue operations.
Stop engineering cheap-credit booms that inflate assets and then panic-hike when the bill arrives.
In a functioning society the young inherit. In our clown-house it’s the old who inherit.
While the young fantasize about burning it all down.
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October Update: Jobs Recover, Bonds Panic
Sounds exactly like the circumstances I faced at 25 years old in 1979 when interest rates soared to 17%. Back then we didn't attack my grandparents for the financial difficulties we faced.
I have more assets than my parents. So no real inheritance from them. However, my children should have a decent inheritance when they shove me in the ground. There will be quite an impressive wealth transfer starting now and for the next 30 years or so.