For decades, having children was something many Americans did before they started thinking seriously about retirement. That’s becoming less common.

Americans are waiting longer than ever to start families. The average age (1) of first-time mothers reached a record 27.5 years in 2023, up from 21.4 in 1970. While delaying parenthood can offer greater financial stability, it also means more parents are finding themselves squeezed between two expensive goals at once: paying for their children’s future while trying to secure their own.

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For Noel Keomanila and Ed Myrick, those competing priorities arrived at the same time. By the time their son was born, Myrick had already left a banking career to care for his aging parents and was rebuilding his professional life as a real estate investor.

“We get to be involved, present and part of our kid’s life in so many ways we wouldn’t and couldn’t have before,” he told the Wall Street Journal (2).

But what happens when the years traditionally devoted to building retirement savings become the same years you’re paying for a child’s future?

The sandwich generation squeeze

As more Americans have children later, many are finding themselves balancing the costs of raising kids at the same time their own parents are aging and retirement is approaching. According to Pew Research (3), 54% have a parent age 65 or older and are either raising a child under 18 or financially supporting an adult child.

The transition came with financial tradeoffs. Myrick no longer had access to health insurance, retirement benefits or the predictable paycheck that came with his banking career. Instead, his earnings depend on when properties sell.

Fortunately, his wife has worked at the same telecom-security company for 21 years, providing the family with both a reliable income and health coverage.

That coverage has proven especially valuable. Myrick says the physical demands of raising a young child have generated medical expenses that have eaten into money he had hoped to set aside for retirement, including treatment for a torn bicep he suffered while moving a toy car he was building for his son.

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The cost of waiting

The couple says those medical expenses have eaten into money they had hoped to set aside for retirement. Myrick and Keomanila aren’t alone in their concerns. A Gallup poll (4) found that 69% of nonretirees are very or moderately worried about not having enough money in retirement, compared with 39% of retirees.