Most Americans are ‘financially traumatized.’ Gen X has been hurt the most

Most Americans (68%) are grappling with or have dealt with financial trauma, per an Experian survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults. Financial trauma is “an emotional wounding that happens as a direct result of something to do specifically with money,” according to Chantel Chapman, co-founder of Trauma of Money. Cents, dollars, or a lack thereof carry weight, as they can shape personal relationships, strain familial dynamics, and create our own outlook towards wealth as we get older. And some generations report feeling the brunt more than others.

Gen Xers sit at the top at 74%, followed by millennials (71%), Gen Zers (64%), boomers (63%), and the Silent Generation (60%) (although some respondents may be dealing with more money issues than they care to report). That Gen X leads the pack is a sign of how they grew up and of their life stage. 

Most of the oft-forgotten Gen Xers are children of early boomers and the Silent Generation, who partly got their name for grinning and bearing extreme economic hardship as they grew up during the Great Depression. The nickname also comes from their reputation for traditionalist ways. Time Magazine first came up with the moniker in 1951: “Youth today is waiting for the hand of fate to fall on its shoulders, meanwhile working fairly hard and saying almost nothing. The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence,” it noted. 

It’s possible the Silent Gen’s economic strife, scarcity mindset, and silence has trickled down and impacted the grunge loving, former rage-against-the-machine teens turned 40-something year-old managers: Gen Xers. Psychologists have found…