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Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future
From Yahoo Finance, a practical guide to help the sixty-four million people who make up Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) plan for a secure financial future
The oldest members of Gen X are less than a decade from retirement age, but many of the sixty-four million Americans born between 1965 and 1980 are not sufficiently prepared. While it could be easy to label Gen Xers as slackers, there are several underlying economic issues making it harder for this cohort to save for retirement. Company-funded pensions vanished just as Gen X started working, 401(k)s were less widespread for much of their early earning years, and Gen X’s earnings have been disrupted by multiple financial crises during their work lifetimes.
TITLE TK is a retirement playbook that specifically targets this overlooked generation. Yahoo Finance experts Kerry Hannon and Janna Herron lay out a blueprint for Gen Xers to take control of their financial from understanding investment options, to boosting financial security, to creating a retirement income stream, and more. The goal is to embrace not just saving for retirement but saving for life.
The oldest members of Gen X are less than a decade from retirement age, but many of the sixty-four million Americans born between 1965 and 1980 are not sufficiently prepared. While it could be easy to label Gen Xers as slackers, there are several underlying economic issues making it harder for this cohort to save for retirement. Company-funded pensions vanished just as Gen X started working, 401(k)s were less widespread for much of their early earning years, and Gen X’s earnings have been disrupted by multiple financial crises during their work lifetimes.
TITLE TK is a retirement playbook that specifically targets this overlooked generation. Yahoo Finance experts Kerry Hannon and Janna Herron lay out a blueprint for Gen Xers to take control of their financial from understanding investment options, to boosting financial security, to creating a retirement income stream, and more. The goal is to embrace not just saving for retirement but saving for life.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published September 30, 2025
20 people are currently reading
2389 people want to read
About the author
Kerry Hannon
28 books12 followersKerry Hannon is a leading authority and strategist on retirement, jobs, career transitions, entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal finance. She is a frequent TV, radio, and podcast commentator and is a sought-after keynote speaker at major conferences.
Kerry’s books and appearances focus on how the shifting demographics are transforming the way we work and create wealth, purpose, and happiness. Millions of viewers, readers, and listeners have been motivated by Kerry’s can-do, down-to-earth message.
Kerry’s new book is Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future (Hachette Book Group, 2025)
She is the award-winning author of 14 books, including In Control at 50+: How to Succeed In The New World of Work (McGraw-Hill), Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy . . . And Pays the Bills (John Wiley & Sons), Great Pajama Jobs: Your Complete Guide to Working From Home (John Wiley & Sons), and Never Too Old to Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life (John Wiley & Sons)
Other books include: Money Confidence: Really Smart Financial Moves for Newly Single Women (Post Hill Press), Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness (John Wiley & Sons), Getting the Job You Want after 50( John Wiley & Sons), What’s Next?: Finding Your Passion and Your Dream Job in Your Forties, Fifties and Beyond (John Wiley & Sons), and the updated What’s Next?: Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job (Chronicle Books).
She has covered all aspects of careers, business, and personal finance as an expert columnist, editor, and writer for the nation’s leading media companies, including The New York Times, Forbes, Money, U.S. News & World Report, and USA Today. Kerry’s work has also appeared in BusinessWeek, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, and The Wall Street Journal, among other national publications. Her advice as a work and jobs expert has been a regular feature in AARP publications, and she is currently the featured expert in an AARP webinar series.
Kerry is also currently a senior columnist and on-air expert at Yahoo Finance. Kerry has appeared as a career and financial expert on TV on The Dr. Phil Show, ABC News, CBS News, CNBC, NBC Nightly News, NPR, Yahoo Finance and PBS.
In addition to offering practical advice for mid-life workers seeking jobs, financial, and personal rewards and riding the age wave of longevity with grace, a key passion for Kerry is helping and advising people on how to take charge of their own financial planning, at all stages of their lives, to prepare themselves for a financially secure future.
Kerry was a National Press Foundation Fellow, a Fellow of the Columbia Journalism School, a Fellow and currently a featured moderator in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center’s Age Boom Academy, as well as a MetLife Foundation and New America Media Fellow on Aging.
She has testified before Congress about the importance of older workers in the workforce and retirement readiness. Kerry was awarded the 2023 Retirement Pioneer Award issued by the Retirement Coaches Association for her efforts to expand and enhance the lives of retired people seeking encore careers, tools, and resources.
Follow Kerry on Bluesky, X @KerryHannon, visit her website at KerryHannon.com, and check out her LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/kerryhannon. For Instagram users: https://www.instagram.com/kerryhannon/. Read her columns on yahoo.com/author/kerry-hannon/.
Kerry’s books and appearances focus on how the shifting demographics are transforming the way we work and create wealth, purpose, and happiness. Millions of viewers, readers, and listeners have been motivated by Kerry’s can-do, down-to-earth message.
Kerry’s new book is Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future (Hachette Book Group, 2025)
She is the award-winning author of 14 books, including In Control at 50+: How to Succeed In The New World of Work (McGraw-Hill), Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy . . . And Pays the Bills (John Wiley & Sons), Great Pajama Jobs: Your Complete Guide to Working From Home (John Wiley & Sons), and Never Too Old to Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life (John Wiley & Sons)
Other books include: Money Confidence: Really Smart Financial Moves for Newly Single Women (Post Hill Press), Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness (John Wiley & Sons), Getting the Job You Want after 50( John Wiley & Sons), What’s Next?: Finding Your Passion and Your Dream Job in Your Forties, Fifties and Beyond (John Wiley & Sons), and the updated What’s Next?: Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job (Chronicle Books).
She has covered all aspects of careers, business, and personal finance as an expert columnist, editor, and writer for the nation’s leading media companies, including The New York Times, Forbes, Money, U.S. News & World Report, and USA Today. Kerry’s work has also appeared in BusinessWeek, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, and The Wall Street Journal, among other national publications. Her advice as a work and jobs expert has been a regular feature in AARP publications, and she is currently the featured expert in an AARP webinar series.
Kerry is also currently a senior columnist and on-air expert at Yahoo Finance. Kerry has appeared as a career and financial expert on TV on The Dr. Phil Show, ABC News, CBS News, CNBC, NBC Nightly News, NPR, Yahoo Finance and PBS.
In addition to offering practical advice for mid-life workers seeking jobs, financial, and personal rewards and riding the age wave of longevity with grace, a key passion for Kerry is helping and advising people on how to take charge of their own financial planning, at all stages of their lives, to prepare themselves for a financially secure future.
Kerry was a National Press Foundation Fellow, a Fellow of the Columbia Journalism School, a Fellow and currently a featured moderator in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center’s Age Boom Academy, as well as a MetLife Foundation and New America Media Fellow on Aging.
She has testified before Congress about the importance of older workers in the workforce and retirement readiness. Kerry was awarded the 2023 Retirement Pioneer Award issued by the Retirement Coaches Association for her efforts to expand and enhance the lives of retired people seeking encore careers, tools, and resources.
Follow Kerry on Bluesky, X @KerryHannon, visit her website at KerryHannon.com, and check out her LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/kerryhannon. For Instagram users: https://www.instagram.com/kerryhannon/. Read her columns on yahoo.com/author/kerry-hannon/.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 2, 2025
Necessary financial info
November 2, 2025
Kerry Hannon and Janna Herron have written the book every Gen Xer needs right now. Reality Bytes is more than a financial guide. It is a survival manual for a generation trying to navigate a world that looks nothing like the one our parents promised us.
Our parents assumed we would follow the same path they did — steady jobs, pensions, affordable homes, and early retirements funded by selling the house and collecting Social Security. What they never saw coming were the student loans they refused to take on, the housing crash that wiped out savings, and the cost of health care that now swallows entire retirements whole.
The authors speak directly to that reality. They understand what it means to be caught in the middle: still working, still helping our kids through college or graduate school, while also managing the growing costs of aging parents. My own father’s final years cost nearly ten thousand dollars a month in nursing home care, even with veterans benefits and supplemental insurance. Watching that unfold made me realize how unprepared most of our generation is for the financial pressures ahead.
What makes Reality Bytes so valuable is its calm, grounded tone. Hannon and Herron do not lecture or overwhelm. They translate complicated financial systems into clear language and offer realistic steps for taking control of money, planning for care, and reducing the anxiety that so often surrounds it. This book does not sugarcoat anything, but it also does not leave you feeling hopeless.
For Gen X readers, Reality Bytes is essential. It acknowledges the squeeze between generations, the uncertainty of our future, and the emotional weight of trying to protect both our parents and our children at the same time. Most of all, it reminds us that preparation is power — and that it is not too late to take charge of our financial reality.
Our parents assumed we would follow the same path they did — steady jobs, pensions, affordable homes, and early retirements funded by selling the house and collecting Social Security. What they never saw coming were the student loans they refused to take on, the housing crash that wiped out savings, and the cost of health care that now swallows entire retirements whole.
The authors speak directly to that reality. They understand what it means to be caught in the middle: still working, still helping our kids through college or graduate school, while also managing the growing costs of aging parents. My own father’s final years cost nearly ten thousand dollars a month in nursing home care, even with veterans benefits and supplemental insurance. Watching that unfold made me realize how unprepared most of our generation is for the financial pressures ahead.
What makes Reality Bytes so valuable is its calm, grounded tone. Hannon and Herron do not lecture or overwhelm. They translate complicated financial systems into clear language and offer realistic steps for taking control of money, planning for care, and reducing the anxiety that so often surrounds it. This book does not sugarcoat anything, but it also does not leave you feeling hopeless.
For Gen X readers, Reality Bytes is essential. It acknowledges the squeeze between generations, the uncertainty of our future, and the emotional weight of trying to protect both our parents and our children at the same time. Most of all, it reminds us that preparation is power — and that it is not too late to take charge of our financial reality.
November 8, 2025
A review from a member of the no-BS generation who has worked in nonprofits most of her career and grew up decidedly urban middle class (that is, not from money):
Spare me the pop culture references. I don’t care about how a quoted financial expert loves ‘The Goonies’ or whatever non sequitur Kurt Cobain quote the authors felt like sprinkling in. Really, you don’t have to tell me about life as a latchkey kid riding my bike without a helmet. I was there.
Once you cut through the gimmicks, the remaining text is rather quite slim. I suppose the book is a start for people who never thought about saving or never spoke with a financial advisor. (And why not? Does no one remember the horrors of the Reagan administration, or were they too busy spending all their $3.35 hourly minimum wage on 12” singles?) So I skimmed the first half.
The book became…well, intermittently informative after that. The chapter on U.S. Social Security was useful, but then I logged on to that great Gen X development (the internet) and found all the same information—AND a dynamic tool for calculating your income based on the date you move the slider to! Dear reader, THAT is what Alex P. Keaton (another reference) would have done. The rest? If you’re fuzzy, ask your parents or other older persons in your life what they wish they would have done once it became clear the nuke wasn’t coming for us. And if you happen to have a job that requires you to elect insurance coverage every year, pretty much none of these terms should be foreign. In fact, I bet most would-be readers have already figured out a lot of this stuff themselves.
I suppose ‘Retirement Bites’ is useful for someone (a slacker?) who never paid attention and is now thinking about retirement before too long; even then, though, it’s not economical at all. There’s too much padding. Unlike with the skateboard on the cover. Ouch.
Spare me the pop culture references. I don’t care about how a quoted financial expert loves ‘The Goonies’ or whatever non sequitur Kurt Cobain quote the authors felt like sprinkling in. Really, you don’t have to tell me about life as a latchkey kid riding my bike without a helmet. I was there.
Once you cut through the gimmicks, the remaining text is rather quite slim. I suppose the book is a start for people who never thought about saving or never spoke with a financial advisor. (And why not? Does no one remember the horrors of the Reagan administration, or were they too busy spending all their $3.35 hourly minimum wage on 12” singles?) So I skimmed the first half.
The book became…well, intermittently informative after that. The chapter on U.S. Social Security was useful, but then I logged on to that great Gen X development (the internet) and found all the same information—AND a dynamic tool for calculating your income based on the date you move the slider to! Dear reader, THAT is what Alex P. Keaton (another reference) would have done. The rest? If you’re fuzzy, ask your parents or other older persons in your life what they wish they would have done once it became clear the nuke wasn’t coming for us. And if you happen to have a job that requires you to elect insurance coverage every year, pretty much none of these terms should be foreign. In fact, I bet most would-be readers have already figured out a lot of this stuff themselves.
I suppose ‘Retirement Bites’ is useful for someone (a slacker?) who never paid attention and is now thinking about retirement before too long; even then, though, it’s not economical at all. There’s too much padding. Unlike with the skateboard on the cover. Ouch.
November 11, 2025
Lots and lots of information to refer to when planning for upcoming retirement, or looking for answers while in. Definitely a good reference book for the future.
Thanks to NetGalley, Ms Hannon and Herron, and Basic Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review
Thanks to NetGalley, Ms Hannon and Herron, and Basic Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review
January 5, 2026
Mostly skimmed — this could be a really helpful overview for folks who haven’t done much learning about or planning for retirement yet, but it was a lot of the basics you can find elsewhere sprinkled with some Gen X salt
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews