Nearly a Third of Gen Z Workers Are Raiding Retirement Accounts to Support Kids and Parents at Once

A new report is putting a number on something a lot of young workers already feel in their bank accounts: they're stretched thin, and some are starting retirement savings by pulling money out of them.

According to a study from MyGuideToRetirement.org, a family and financial planning research hub, 39% of Gen Z adults, meaning people age 29 and under, now say they're financially supporting both a child and an aging parent at the same time. That puts them second only to millennials (46%) in the so-called sandwich generation, a term for adults squeezed between caring for their own kids and their own parents.

The survey polled more than 1,000 U.S. earners about the financial and emotional weight of supporting relatives, according to the NY Post's coverage of the findings.

The retirement numbers deserve attention. The study found 30% of Gen Z adults have already withdrawn money from a retirement account specifically because of family responsibilities. Compare that to 22% of millennials, 11% of Gen X, and 6% of baby boomers. Per the study's authors, that's twice the rate of Gen X and more than three times the rate of baby boomers.

The study's authors argue Gen Z may be underestimating the damage of tapping into savings this early. "Zoomers might feel that early withdrawals are no big deal, as they have many working years ahead of them," the researchers wrote, adding that this assumption leads many to believe they can simply replenish the accounts later "without consequence." They argue that's the opposite of true: early withdrawals "can create some of the most severe long-term damage because they prevent decades of potential compound growth."

There's also a mental health dimension here. The study found 75% of Gen Z respondents feel "emotionally responsible" for helping a loved one financially, the highest rate of any generation measured, and 76% say they're frequently stressed about their finances because of these obligations.

Extended families supporting each other financially isn't a new phenomenon, particularly in immigrant and working-class households where multigenerational support has always been common. What's different here, if the study is right, is the scale and the age at which it's starting, combined with a cost-of-living environment that's made basic stability harder to reach in the first place. The Post's piece cites separate 2026 data suggesting roughly 70% of Americans face some risk of insecurity around housing, food, or healthcare costs. If that's the backdrop, it's not surprising that the youngest earners, who typically have the smallest financial cushions, are the ones cracking first.

One narrative element worth noting: the framing around Gen Z being "oft-maligned as lazy" and "skittish brats" sets up the data as a rebuttal to a stereotype, which is a fine rhetorical device but isn't itself a finding from the study. The actual numbers stand on their own. The underlying data, family caregiving burdens rising and retirement withdrawals climbing among the youngest workers, is the story.

The study's authors warn that without substantial savings, Gen Zers risk delaying retirement and postponing other financial milestones such as debt repayment, building emergency funds, and buying a home. As they put it, "the tension between supporting loved ones today and securing stability tomorrow is becoming harder for households to ignore."