risen more than 400% over ever the last 30 years. things sure have changed. take baby boomers. many were the first in their family to go to college. right? well, today their children and grandchildren may told a degree but it comes at a steep price and they're still looking for a job. student loan debt stands at $865 billion, topping credit card debt for the first time. let's bring in ryan mack, president of optimum capital management, and from austin, and aaron smith, co-founder of the group called yun invincible, a non-partisan organization based on issues facing young americans and a cnn.com contributor. aaron, it's your generation. millennials, ages 18 to 30. how do they feel about this shifting, this shifting situation for education? it costs more. you're not guaranteed a job but you know you need it. >> there's tremendous concern out there. we know that as young americans that we need that education to get ahead. there's huge benefits from getting a college degree, but as you mentioned, the price of going to college is going up faster than inflation. it's going up faster than even health care, and unfortunately, the policy we're putting in place, like slashing aid to higher institutions at the state level and cutting pell grants are exactly the wrong policies that are going to make it more affordable to get an education. >> bring you in. the ability to go to college was a milestone for an individual and for a family. you know, has that milestone, the price of that milestone, changed, and how do we convince kids that, yes, it really is worth it to get a college degree? i'm real sorry it's going to cost you so much? >> it's true for kids that get a college degree. the milestone becomes a millstone. look at college student indebtedness. gone up 5% since 1999. twice as fast as the subprime crisis that took down the banking industry a couple years ago. we are telling ow kids you have to have a college education but it's going to cost you an arm, a leg and another leg. doesn't make any sense. >> you have to be so strategic about the education you're getting. some places are hiring some aren't. you and i have talked about that a lot. science, technology, engineering math. the rest of the world, quite frankly, churning out kids with superior skills in areas. ruben, bring you in. talk about the american family, because everything's changing here. maybe the cost of an education, the cost of everything is one of the reasons why this is happening here. barely half of all adults in the u.s. are record low, are counterly married. according to a new pew report. look at this. in 2000, the cost of raising a child $165 grand, by 2010, more than a quarter of a million dollars. that's not counting college. so you've got people who are graduating from college, going into an economy at a time when they should be thinking about having children, getting married, home ownership themselves and they're saying, wait a minute. i'm not going to do it the way my parents' genreations did. >> you're right, christine. it's all different. they can't take the life experience that their grandparents went through and parents went through and apply it to themselves. they've got to realize that the degree is not going to be worth as much now as it was before, instead of setting sights on a bachelor, go for a masters, and even in college, thinking a getting that next job. everything is different. one of the main problem wes like to use our parents and grandparents as a frame of reference and lose sight of the fact the world changed enormously. this is one example ever that. >> ryan, you talk to a lot of young people. you talk to people who are trying to improve their finances. you know an awful lot about money. it's not a given that this generation can do the same things, generation widy, add generation x and live better? it's not a given anymore. >> absolutely. we are now in the day of having to learn how to create our own experience, even while in college. i mean, a lot of folks, even a lot of mentors of mine might go to the lisle city college. that local city college might not be looked at as prestigious, but it's time for individuals who are younger to start volunteering in your community and making documents of exactly how you volunteer, starting your own business maybe failing so you can at least highlight that experience that you've creatored while in college, once you've graduated college to make yourself look and appear nor marketable. doing all of these things and more make sure, again, you're creating your own experience and not just relying upon that college education. granted, college is -- average work life, but that pool of individuals who graduate college is starting to grow and grow. so that it's becoming smaller and smaller in terms of opportunity for individuals graduating especially generation dwlachlt just graduated. we have to create our own experiences, not wait for the ship to come in. learn how to swim out to your own ship and don't use your degree as the only crutch to say you're successful. >> you can earn millions more, but more and more know that and are getting the degree. that pool of opportunity is shrinking. important advice. stick where you are. so much more to talk about. you'll be with me to do it. used to be you had a job for as long as you want add career and then decided it was time to retire. not anymore. the new normal for all of the generations. 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[ man ] still love that wind in my face! talk to your doctor. don't kid yourself about the risk of heart attack and stroke. if lipitor's been working for you, stay with it. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. learn more at lipitorforyou.com. welcome back to "your bottom line." once was, you grade waited from high school, college, got job. had a job for as long as you want add career until you retired. not any more. more than 1 million americans are out of work. generation x, 36 to 40 years old at the highest earnings point in their lives can make the argument they are suffer more, the financial crisis at the high when they should be at their peak. >> you said in the beginning, science, technology, engineering, mathematic, continuously growing. technology unemployment rate, 4.2% whereas the rest, 8.6% nationally. many of us in generation x are not trained in those areas. we're finding ourselves in terms of the pooling opportunity of jobs becoming smaller and smaller. we're xufr scuffling, getting retrained maybe, going back to school and finding refuge in that additional masters program, going back to law school and not necessarily to get an education to make sure they can pay off the student loans and continue to wait out the recession. again, we have to make sure we're getting retrained, educated and knowing what areas are hottest. if you're not educated in science, technology, engineering mathematics, you're not getting that job. it's up to you to prepare and position yourself best for this recession f. you're a boomer, and you're hearing me stalk about s.t.e.m., and someone's lost their job in their 50s, they don't feel thir in a position to retrain store s.t.e.m. after 30 years on the job. how do they reboot and do they freed to reboot? >> boomers need to reboot, they want to reboot, they're afraid of retirement now. many case, their big nest egg, the eck get thatequity in the h. we work with young people all the time and are comfortable with technology, but i've seen 134 of my peer whose nerve her to work with young people, new technology and find it frightening. the most frightening time for boomers. many thought we'd be able to retire with dignity and comfort. that's just not happening. >> ruben, you've written about millennials, comfortable with technology, but then a feeling they are kind of entitled, particularly at work. you've written about this. does the work force need to adapt to these millennials or do the millennials need to adapt fought work force? >> a lot of both. mostly the millennials need to adapt. i hear from hundreds of employers whenever i write about this subject. they all have a story about a young person who he iran vinter. i'll work here, doing you a favor. when am i up for vice president? a sense ever not wanting to pay your dues, being in a hurry. this generation, my generation x has a sense of immediacy and millennials more so. go to one internet company over another, get it faster, faster, faster. they want everything right now and it plays into this. >> aaron, the young kids, a perception in the work force they need to learn how to play ball with the generation x-ers and the baby boomers even the silent generation that's still working and, by the way, don't expect to be handed as much as the boomers were in terms of government, the government contracts for retirement. i mean, look, young people, i think, want the same things every generation in this country wanted. that's opportunity. you look -- this is a generation i think has tremendous potential. we talked about how we're tech savvy, entrepreneurial. a generation serving our country overseas. a generation that has a lot to offer, and i think we need to invest in them and absolutely, young people need to be part of figuring out this new economy. but we also have to invest in them and give them that opportunity to succeed. if i can add one thing. it's we talk a lot about college graduation. the reality in this country is that two-thirds of young adults actually don't get a college degree, and in the past, will you that opportunity without a college degree to get a middle-class job and that's going away. that's one of the things we're most concerned about. >> let's keep it there a second. more to talk about here. we'll talk next about owning a home. it was a huge part of the american dream. that's changing, too. why smart young people say, a mortgage? no way. with your mortgage, worried about foreclosure. we can help you keep your house. all we ask for in return is that you submit to our plans for galactic domination. [laughing] [laughing hesitantly] [laughing evilly] sign. announcer: if you're facing foreclosure, talk to the right people. speak with hud-approved housing counselors free of charge at... for baby boomers, the white pick the fence two car garage, mortgage to pay off in 30 years was part of the american dream. pulling ourselves out of the financial crisis that dream may be changing. home nest egg, a home. now it's a broken egg. this is going to be critical how people retire and how younger people view home ownership. >> it's frightening for a lot of baby boomers because they anticipated that when it was time to retire, sell their home, downsize and take a lot of cash out. that's not happening to a lot of baby boomers because it's of what happening in the market. however, the reality is, if i'm young, this still is a great time to own a home. interest rates are at historical lows. house values gone down significantly. we know when the economy turns around it has to do eventually. interest rates and house prices going up. if i'm a young person who has a job, i would really think seriously about buying a house right now, because this is a great environment to buy. if rimei'm a baby boomer i'm sweating bullets. worried to lose my job to a younger person. worried my pension may be cut, retirement cut. i'm worried that property taxes may go up and force me to sell my house at a loss. a baby boomer, not fun time to be alive. a young person, the greatest time to buy houses i've seen in a long time. >> home ownership, aaron, not necessarily the dream for your generation. i talk to young people, look, if i want a job in seattle but live in baltimore i can't have a mortgage. they sometimes feel bad for their friends who have to take care of all of the costs associated with a home. they just want to make sure there's good amenities there and they can jump out of it with a month's notice, right? >> we find many young people do want to bay home. 46% of young adults actually said they were delaying purchasing a house, but the economic anxiety out there makes you think twice about buying a house if you already have student debt, you're going to add the mortgage on top of that. you're not sure about what your job situation is going to be. i think those are real challenges, and unfortunately, it affects the whole economy when young people are not investing in buying a house. >> the conversation people are having, quite frankly, can i get back on mom and dad's insurance for health care insurance and how many years can i live at home before my parents completely go crazy? talking multigenerations living -- talking about, frankly, the style of generation living at home with boomer kids, now called the sandwich generation. kids coming out of college with all of this debt. interesting, talk about multigenerations living at home. 28%, 29d% homeowners behind on mortgages, out of pocket expenses for health care still going up. there's just a new reality about home ownership and the costs associated with it. are we changing what we think is the american dream, do you think? >> yes, i think so. going back, again, the world war ii, the generation, you made it and you had a home. rather than pay rent, you're going to have something you can call your own. the baby boomers bought into that. they subscribe to that. one thing you have to understand about the generations, no matter what the generation is going through, someone else is always watching. what happens to the boomers, when they got hit by that recession and laid off, the message to my generation of xers was don't put all your eggs in one basket. likewise today, younger people are watching what happens with mortgagers, look what happened, you put all this money into it, the properties dropped, all these anxieties, the uncertainty of the market and they say, i'm out. i don't want to do that. i'd rather go rent. every generation sort of learns from the other and there's an apprehension. they look at what the other generation is going through thinking, i don't think i want to do that. >> there are two numbers, everybody, that absolutely terrify me about retirement. and i'll tell what they are and whether my fears are shared by respective generations, next. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] new glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ all right. here are the two numbers that terrify me. fidelity investments estimates that a 65-year-old couple $230,000 to pay for medical retirement. wg.ypocket. it doesn't include nursing home care. that, according to met life, adds another $87,000 per year for a private nursing room. and if you want a roommate, it's going to be only in the $70,000 range. ryan, we really need you to help us financially prepare for retirement these days. those are big numbers. >> the bottom line is, we have not done the right thing in order to get prepared for this. a preretiree has about $60,000 in retirement savings. that's well short of the numbers retired. those numbers don't include what they need to feed themselves for this years, as well. so there are a lot of expenses that we're not doing. especially when you put it to the fact that over 930% of all households are relying on social security for the primary source of income. these numbers are preposterous. less than over half of america say they have less than $2,000 of workers saved for retirement at all. there's certain things that we can control. a lot of things going on in europe, a lot of things going on all across the world that we can control. but what we can't control is starting right now, better late than later, start putting money in that retirement account and saving as aggressively as possible. >> but this reiterates there's two americas, right? there's the america that's going to be able to save that money and plan and have the kind of income that can save all that money. and then they're going to have to pay all that money when they're old to support themselves. then there's the other part of the equation where people who will never be able to save that money, either can't or won't, and hen the public will have to pick up the tab. >> right. christine, it's more complicated. because in many cases, you may find that some of these folks who are at the lower income levels are more frugal. they do a better job of saving. they're i wouldn't go used to having less. one of the things that characterized the world war ii generation, having gone through the great depression and having gone through resources and in world war ii, the idea of sacrifice, savings money away. the baby boomers come along and for, as you know, madison avenue for 30, 40 years have been going back to using beatles song to tell cars and tell boomers, come on, you deserve it. buy yourself a new car. ultimately, it may be that the wealthy people, just because you're welly doesn't mean you know how to manage your money, doesn't mean you have on how to save your mope. it's not a question of rich or poor.añ it's a question of when you were born. >> 40% of americans say they will never be able to retire. is your generation in crisis mode? >> i don't think we're in crisis mode. but i think it's absolutely true. the definition of retirement has changed in our lifetime. when i was growing up, the idea of retire, a gold watch was reality. right now, i quite frankly think i'm going to continue to work as long as i'm healthy. >> but you love to work. that's another thing about your generation. you love to work. love to work or not, we don't have any choice. we can't afford to retire. let me give you one example. a friend of mine from college just retired after 38 years working with the las vegas prosecutor's office. and he retired because he had a great program. his retirement pay is 00% of what he was making full time. and in spite of that, he is now working as assistant dooel dean at our former college. so even though he's retired and being paid 100%, he is working full time. retirement for the baby boomer generation is"j working until physically can't afford to work any more. >> eighteen, you get to round it out here. this is what the financial experts will tell you. time is your best friend. do you feel like your generation is thinking now about saving for when they're 80? >> i don't even know how you can think about it. i mean, when you're thinking about paying for your rent and your car payments and your student payments, you know, saving money to retire let alone saving money for your kids to go to college is going to be an after thought. we found that 8 is% of young adults think that protecting social security is a priority don't know where we're going to get the money when we've got all these other costs right now. >> yeah. i know you and your group have been very active on that front and on those sorts of issues. you know, i want to thank all of you because this has been a fascinating trip through the generations and the issues facing them. ryan, mac, thank you so much. john, aaron smith, let's come back and talk about it maybe in 2012, all of us together with all of the hopeful things that may be turning around here in the near term. thanks, everybody. have a great weekend. what are your thoughts on the generational divide? weigh in, find us on facebook and twitter. our handle is