By Lane Gillespie, Bankrate.com

Katey Davern, a 46-year-old in St. Paul, Minnesota, has learned firsthand just how much paperwork is involved when planning someone’s last years.

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Davern, along with her three siblings, started planning for their elderly parents’ end-of-life needs about three years ago. As the parent of five children herself — three of whom are under 18 and still live at home — Davern is increasingly navigating two different financial worlds. In one, she’s helping her parents with end-of-life financial planning. In the other, she and her husband are managing their own immediate family’s spending, saving for their children’s college, contributing to their retirement accounts and adding to their health savings accounts (HSA).

“I think the weird part about being Gen X is while you are raising your kids and they’re becoming less dependent on you, you start to kind of raise your parents. But they don’t want to be dependent on you. It’s a really tricky situation,” Davern says.

Most Gen Xers’ parents either already need end-of-life care or are at the age where they’ll need to make plans for future care. As a result, many Gen Xers themselves (ages 45-60) are in the rare position of having two financial priorities: serving as caretakers for their parents, who could need extensive and time-consuming care, while also sometimes raising kids under the age of 18, who could need child care, school expenses and a college fund. These costs have only grown more expensive over the last few years because of inflation.

The combination of multiple, high-cost financial priorities can have negative effects on Gen Xers’ finances, including their ability to budget and save. And whether they’re caregivers or not, Bankrate data shows that many Gen Xers already struggle to meet important financial milestones, like building a sufficient emergency fund or saving enough to retire. Overall, 84 percent of Gen Xers say they are not completely financially secure, a higher percentage than any other generation, according to Bankrate’s Financial Freedom Survey.

“Generation Xers are the classic group that many of us call the ‘sandwich generation,’” says Bankrate U.S. Economic Reporter Sarah Foster, who reports on economic policy and its effect on American households. “They’re wedged in the middle between conflicting financial goals, like caring for their parents and raising their children. They may feel economic turning points more severely.”

In today’s economic landscape — marked by market volatility, inflation concerns, and tenuous job security — financial decisions have never felt more consequential. Our “Navigating Now” series cuts through the noise with targeted advice for diverse financial situations. Each profile examines real-world challenges and opportunities faced by different Americans, offering actionable strategies tailored to their unique circumstances. Whether you’re struggling to build savings amid rising costs, protect retirement funds during market volatility, or secure your income in an uncertain job landscape, these roadmaps provide clarity in uncertain times.

Rising prices, limited resources are squeezing caregivers — especially Gen Xers

Twenty-nine percent of family caregivers of any age have children or grandchildren under the age of 18 living at home while also caring for an adult family member or friend, according to AARP.

Caring for aging parents is expensive, and those costs often fall on caregivers. Caregivers spend 26 percent of their personal income on caregiving expenses on average, according to AARP, and the average family caregiver spends roughly $7,200 per year on out-of-pocket caregiving expenses. Caregivers might also take on other indirect expenses, like additional transportation costs to take their parents to the doctor.

Even if Gen X caregivers were to help their parents as frugally as possible — such as going without hired help and keeping their parents at home — several economic factors make elder care more expensive today.

For one, costs of caring for the elderly at home are actually rising faster than costs of nursing homes or other inpatient care. The inflation rate for the care of ill and elderly people at home has risen 5.6 percent year-over-year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), while nursing homes and adult day services have risen 4.7 percent. The cost of caring for the elderly at home has grown more than twice the overall inflation rate for all consumer goods (2.7 percent).

Additionally, new restrictions to Medicare passed in the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reduce — or eliminate — access to health care for many elderly Americans. The bill blocks improvements to Medicare Savings Programs, blocks nursing home staffing standards and limits Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices for some rare medical conditions, among other changes. Without widely available access to care, many low-income elderly Americans may need to rely on their Gen X children even more, including paying for their increasingly expensive medications or helping them find health care providers.

In addition to the cost of caring for their parents, Gen X caregivers have to consider the rising costs of raising their own kids. The average cost of day care and preschool rose 5.7 percent between July 2024 and July 2025, according to the BLS. Infant care for one child alone already costs at least 10 percent of a family’s yearly income in most states, according to Bankrate’s Child Care Costs by State Study.

Once their kids are in school, parents still aren’t financially relieved — the average cost of elementary and high school tuition and fees rose 3.1 percent year-over-year as of July, according to the BLS. That’s before the cost of school supplies, extracurricular activities, saving for college and other necessary children’s expenses.

As Gen X caregivers tackle the dual costs of caring for parents and their own children, many Gen Xers’ finances are lagging behind. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of Gen X workers feel behind on where they should be on their retirement savings, according to Bankrate’s 2024 Retirement Savings Survey, even though the oldest Gen Xers are only a few years away from retirement — or are already retired. Additionally, 69 percent of Gen Xers feel uncomfortable with their level of emergency savings, according to Bankrate’s Emergency Savings Report.

With the majority of Gen Xers feeling behind on their retirement and emergency savings, some, especially low-income Gen Xers, may have trouble paying their bills when they hit retirement age themselves. The effects of these struggles go beyond the figures in their bank accounts: Gen Xers are also the likeliest generation to say money negatively impacts their mental health, according to Bankrate’s Money and Mental Health Survey.

‘Navigating Now’: 4 tips for Gen Xers who have competing financial priorities

Managing one household’s finances can be a challenge. Managing two households’ finances can be an even bigger challenge. If your parents are aging, and you’re raising kids of your own, the best way you can financially care for your entire family is to plan proactively.

1. Prioritize your own financial needs

Although you may have many financial priorities, it’s still important to take care of your own financial needs first.

“Airline attendants like to say, ‘Put your oxygen mask on before assisting others.’ The same is often true for financial advice,” Foster says. “You cannot be in a position to help others if you’re not on solid financial footing yourself.”

Foster recommends that people prioritize their own retirement account and emergency fund before contributing financially to others. Identify what you want to save for — such as an emergency savings fund, retirement account or large purchase, such as a down payment on a home — and make sure your budget includes monthly contributions to those buckets, as well as room to pay off high-interest debt. After, you can use the remaining funds to determine how much financial assistance you can provide to an elderly relative.

“Be open and honest with your children, siblings and parents about how much you can afford to help,” Foster says. “With your children, that might be an opportunity to teach them about financial independence and planning — lessons that can pay dividends in their own lives.”

2. Develop a financial organization system

If you’re managing your parents’ finances and your own kids’, you’ll have to keep track of a lot of information, such as budgets, bank accounts, goals and to-do lists. You should start keeping that information in one place, so you can track of all those moving parts and won’t need to scramble to find important information in an emergency. You can use a pen and notebook to do that, but if you need a bit of digital assistance, you can also use a note-taking app, such as Notion, Evernote, Google Keep or Apple Notes.

Consider keeping track of:

Important dates, like when bills are due or when a subscription is set to expire
Your own budget and your parents’, if you’re managing their finances
Your financial goals, like savings goals or investment goals
Your debt payoff and savings goal progress
Future purchases, like gifts or large expenses
Scanned invoices, receipts and other miscellaneous documents
To-do lists, especially if you take care of daily tasks for your parents and kids
Emergency contacts

If you don’t already, you should also make sure you’re keeping your important financial documents — like vital records, deeds, titles and other hard copies of documents — together in an easily accessible place.

3. Set up necessary accounts for you and your children

If you don’t have them already, consider opening savings accounts to allow your emergency savings, retirement savings and college education savings to grow. To set yourself and your family up for future success, you can prioritize contributing to any or all of the following accounts:

An emergency savings fund with three to six months of expenses (or more, depending on your financial situation) saved for emergencies, like a sudden medical bill or job loss. A high-yield savings account is a great option for emergency savings funds because they typically offer higher interest rates than traditional savings accounts.
Retirement accounts, such as a 401(k) (if your employer offers one) and/or Roth IRA. Make sure to contribute enough to a 401(k) to receive your employer match, if you have one.
A health savings account (HSA), a tax-advantaged account that can pay for medical expenses now or in the future. Contributions are tax-deductible if you contribute by paycheck deduction, and earnings and withdrawals are tax-free if used for qualified healthcare expenses. Funds carry over from year to year.
A 529 account, another tax-advantaged savings account that can pay for your children’s education expenses, like tuition, fees, room and board.

“If uncertainty about college costs and the future of the job market have you nervous about locking up your funds for a specific purpose, even just contributing a few dollars every month into a low-cost index fund may go a long way in growing wealth for your child over time,” Foster says.

4. Consider investing in long-term care insurance

Long-term care for the elderly is expensive, and not everyone has sufficient savings to pay for it themselves. If you’re concerned about your parents’ future access to assisted living or home care, you might want to consider taking out a long-term care (LTC) insurance policy for them. LTC insurance can pay for senior living homes, assisted living facilities, daily care programs or home care — any aid for people who need help with activities of daily living, such as dressing themselves.

LTC insurance can be a guaranteed way to pay for intensive elder care, which, depending on the level of care needed, can quickly cost at least six figures per year. However, LTC insurance is also costly, and not all insurance providers offer it. A 55-year-old American man can expect to pay a premium of $2,200 per year on average for $165,000 long-term care insurance with a 3 percent inflation option, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. A 55-year-old woman would pay $3,750 per year on average for the same coverage. Hybrid policies may cost even more.

However, Davern is a big fan of LTC insurance. Both her parents pay for their own policies, and Davern and her three siblings all have policies for themselves for the future.

“Having long-term care insurance, I think, provides that sense of security of, no matter what happens to the quality of my life or my parents’ life, we are financially able to deal with whatever comes our way,” she says.

5. Start financial conversations about elder care early on — before they’re urgent

Even if your parents are still healthy and aren’t thinking about elder care yet, you should consider sitting down with them now and asking if you can help them prepare for the future. This will give you more time to take any necessary financial steps, like saving money or taking out insurance policies. Having a plan ahead of time will also help you and your parents avoid having to make important decisions in a crisis.

There are varying ways to help your parents in their last years. For some families, adult children might eventually have total control of their parents’ finances, including estate, retirement and debt information, if they are no longer able to manage their finances themselves. For others, adult children might just want to know their parents’ health care and end-of-life preferences, like their preferred hospital or their funeral plans.

If your parents are open to it, you should also consider asking them to keep important identity and financial information — such as vital records and the account name and password to their financial accounts — in a safe place that you can access later. If you need to access or close their accounts, you’ll want that information easily available.

Together with her siblings, Davern has started sitting down with her parents to understand and organize her parents’ financial situation. This includes her parents’ medical information; the details of their estate, including whether they have outstanding mortgage balances and the name of their mortgage company; and their financial accounts, including their retirement accounts and their financial advisor’s information.

That’s just one example — every family is different. Your parents might not be ready or able to share information yet, and that’s OK. If you’re interested in helping them, tell them and be open to jumping in where you can.

The bottom line

Being caught between a relative’s financial needs and your own children’s often isn’t easy. But by planning early — perhaps much earlier than you think you need to — you can give yourself the tools to navigate hard decisions later. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself and your own financial needs along the way, too.

Key takeaways:

Many Gen Xers are stretched thin trying to meet both their elderly parents’ financial needs and their own. As many Gen Xers already report low retirement savings and emergency funds, the cost and time commitment of caregiving can make it even harder to meet financial goals for themselves and their kids.
To avoid being torn between financially assisting your aging parents and your own kids, consider prioritizing your own financial goals, taking out long-term care insurance for your parents and discussing your parents’ future needs with them early.

©2025 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting around their records on Thursday as technology stocks keep rising and as Wall Street keeps ignoring the shutdown of the U.S. government.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 78 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher and heading toward its own record.

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Thursdays on Wall Street typically mean investors are reacting to the latest weekly tally of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits. But D.C.’s shutdown means this week’s report on jobless claims has been delayed. An even more consequential report, Friday’s monthly tally of jobs created and destroyed across the economy, will likely also not arrive on schedule.

That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors’ hopes that the job market will slow by a precise amount: enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a recession.

So far, the U.S. stock market has looked past the delays of such data. Shutdowns of the U.S. government have tended not to hurt the economy or stock market much, and the thinking is that this one could be similar, even if President Donald Trump has threatened large-scale firings of federal workers this time around.

That left corporate announcements as the main drivers of trading Thursday.

Stocks in the chip and artificial-intelligence industries climbed after OpenAI announced partnerships with South Korean companies for Stargate, a $500 billion project aimed at building AI infrastructure.

Samsung Electronics rose 3.5% in Seoul, and SK Hynix jumped 9.9%.

The announcement also sent ripples around the world. On Wall Street, Advanced Micro Devices climbed 3.5%, and Broadcom gained 2.5%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a major maker of chips, saw its stock that trades in the United States rise 1.2%.

Excitement around AI and the massive spending underway because of it has been a major reason the U.S. stock market’ has hit record after record, along with hopes for easier interest rates. But AI stocks have become so dominant, and so much money has poured into the industry that worries are rising about a potential bubble that could eventually lead to disappointment for investors.

Occidental Petroleum fell 2.3% after it agreed to sell its chemical business, OxyChem, to Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion in cash. It could be the final big purchase for Berkshire Hathaway with famed investor Warren Buffett as its CEO.

Fair Isaac jumped 22.2% after announcing a program that will allow mortgage lenders to access and distribute FICO credit scores directly to their customers, cutting out such big credit bureaus as TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

TransUnion’s stock tumbled 11.9%, while Equifax slid 10.2%. The stock of the United Kingdom’s Experian fell 3.6% in London.

London’s FTSE 100 edged down by less than 0.1%, but indexes were much stronger across Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.7% for one of the biggest gains following the big jumps for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked down to 4.11% from 4.12% late Wednesday.

AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third-quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30.

The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared to the same period a year ago. The gain follows two quarters of steep declines as people turned off by CEO Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics avoided buying his company’s cars and even protested at some dealerships.

Sales rose to 497,099, compared with with 462,890 in the same period last year. Analysts expected sales to fall slightly to 456,000, even with a boost from customers seeking to use the electric vehicle incentive.

Early last month, Raunaq Alam, a 32-year-old Bangladeshi American from the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Hurst, was on the verge of spending a decade behind bars for the alleged hate crime of spray-painting the words “Fuck Israel” on the side of a non-denominational Christian church in nearby Euless. 

His trial on the trumped-up charge was a classic example of a violation of First Amendment rights and a sign that Alam was being targeted for pro-Palestine activism, said his attorneys and supporters. 

On September 12, Alam was spared this fate as a Tarrant County jury rejected the elevated charge, instead convicting him of lower-level criminal mischief and sentencing him to probation. But Judge Brian Bolton, who presided over the felony trial despite being a misdemeanor judge, added a probation condition: 180 days in jail, starting immediately—a decision that has helped set off a chain of events during which Alam, one of three charged in the graffiti incident (the “Tarrant Three”), has found himself cycling in and out of jail. 

“Every single time since October [2024], the state is adding something new,” Alam told the Texas Observer on September 21 in an interview at his family’s home. “Every single thing they’re doing is just like they’re coming after me in every possible way. It’s abuse of power.”

Alam has been arrested five total times—on a number of grounds including possession of a controlled substance and perjury in addition to the graffiti-related charges—since the beginning of his case. After his most recent arrest for alleged perjury, Alam was placed in maximum-security custody in the Tarrant County Jail, Sheriff Bill Waybourn told WFAA, calling Alam a high-profile inmate. As county prosecutors aggressively pursue jail time for the pro-Palestine activist, his supporters say his rights are being violated.

“The Tarrant County DA’s office is showing the world how easily the government can roll back all of our civil rights,” said Alam’s defense attorney, Adwoa Asante, citing the hate crime escalation along with decisions by the state’s attorneys and the trial judge, calling the ongoing prosecutions a “rush to politically retaliate.”

On March 6, 2024, Alam, riding with friends Afsheen Khan, 23, and Julia Venzor, 26, allegedly pulled his sedan into the parking lot of Uncommon Church, a non-denominational church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Euless. The house of worship was flying the Israeli flag as that country’s siege of Gaza entered its sixth month. Alam, along with Khan and Venzor, were captured on security camera footage spray-painting “Fuck Israel” along an exterior wall. 

The next day, Uncommon Church Lead Pastor Brad Carignan encountered the graffiti after being informed of it via phone call. Carignan and his fellow lead pastor and wife, Josie, have been outspoken in their support of Israel, especially since the 2023 attack by Hamas. Carignan testified during Alam’s hate crime trial last month, saying the graffiti left their “hearts so broken” and that “We, as Gentile church people, felt such a connection to Jewish people.” (At trial, Alam acknowledged he was aware of the church’s Zionist leanings.)

Law enforcement secured a warrant on March 20 and arrested Alam on a misdemeanor graffiti charge five days later. FBI agents arrived at a T-Mobile in Euless, where he worked. After Alam refused to answer questions without legal representation, he was taken into custody. Euless Police officers then searched Alam’s car, unlocking it with Alam’s own keys, and allegedly found less than one gram of ’shrooms, according to Asante, which led to an additional drug charge that remains pending. A search warrant for Alam’s car was secured two days later, according to trial testimony from police.

Alam bonded out within thirty hours. Then, last September, the district attorney assigned the graffiti case to Assistant DA Lloyd Whelchel, whose portfolio often includes capital murder prosecutions. Two months later, Alam was arrested and jailed again when Whelchel enhanced the charge from misdemeanor graffiti to criminal mischief and a hate crime, elevating the potential punishment from a $200 fine to a potential 10-year prison sentence.

During Alam’s hate crime trial last month, the prosecution argued that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are synonymous, emphasizing the overlap between the State of Israel and the Jewish people. But Alam’s lawyers and expert witnesses from both the defense and (in one instance) the prosecution stated that a distinction must be maintained between people of Jewish faith and the Israeli state. One expert witness, Deb Armintor, a University of North Texas professor with the Jewish Studies program and member of Jewish Voice for Peace, stressed the point to the Observer. “Not only is Israel committing a genocide against the Palestinian people; they’re claiming to do it in our name,” she said. “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. … Zionism is a relatively modern political ideology. Judaism is an ancient religion.”

In his arguments, Whelchel referred to Alam’s actions as “terrorism,” called him a “punk,” and described alleged drug use in an apparent attempt to malign the defendant’s character. But jurors ultimately reached a unanimous decision that the act was not a hate crime. 

After the judge added the 180-day sentence to his probation, his lawyers appealed the jail time and Alam was bailed out on September 16, reuniting with his family, friends, and two cats. Mark Streiff, another Tarrant County criminal defense attorney, told the Observer that the 180-day addition was “a miscarriage of justice” and that the judge had acted “because of his own feelings about everything.” 

Alam’s ordeal, however, was far from over as prosecutors filed a motion arguing his bond was insufficient, citing text messages related to drug use submitted during trial and claiming Alam had perjured himself by denying he had used drugs. “They’re trying to revoke his bond on the drug charge, even though he hasn’t had any violations. So they’re essentially trying to revoke his bond for thought crimes,” Asante said. “I think it’s very important for people to understand: Fascism is here.”

On September 24, Alam was indicted for aggravated perjury and arrested again at the end of the next day. Alam had to pay two bonds, totalling $40,000, to get out again, which he did with help from a GoFundMe. Alam is now confined with an ankle monitor under curfew, with a court date set for November 11.

As Alam has cycled in and out of lockup, his lawyer Asante alleges that the trial judge displayed partiality to the state. In a failed recusal motion from last October, Asante alleged “biased rulings” and ex parte communications between the judge and the prosecution that disadvantaged the defense. 

The motion reads in part: “On October 8th, 2024, Judge Bolton rescheduled a trial date, where Defense had an out of state witness, without consulting Defense for the availability of Counsel, witnesses, or even the accused. … Defense is unsure if the new trial date of October 28th, 2024 took into account the State’s availability as Defense was not present for the ex parte communications about the motion to amend that Judge Bolton granted.”

Whelchel and Bolton’s offices did not respond to requests for comment. District Attorney Phil Sorrells told the Observer there were “no unauthorized communications.” Sorrels also said: “The First Amendment is not a shield for criminal behavior. Destroying another person’s property because you disagree with their views is not protected speech—it is a crime. Our community will not tolerate such lawlessness.”

The “Tarrant Three” have never disputed that they vandalized Uncommon Church. While Venzor and her lawyer took a plea deal in exchange for probation sometime prior to September, reportedly out of concern for Venzor’s children, Alam and Khan’s legal representatives are instead fighting the state’s prosecution. Khan’s trial was recently reset to December 2.

Alam and Afsheen Khan (right), who still faces trial (Courtesy/Stacey Monroe)

Alam, who grew up in Hurst and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of Texas at Dallas, found a gateway into activism through the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014. A child of survivors of the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971, where the Pakistani government exterminated up to 3 million people, Alam spoke to the Observer about his father’s experiences and his passion for the pro-Palestinian cause.

“There was a time when my dad was traveling between the rivers on a boat to go to his uncle’s house, and he saw, like, a pile of skeletons in the river, just stacked [on the bank]. Bodies just being thrown in the river,” Alam said. “So that’s images that are just burned into [my family’s] heads that, unfortunately, are having to be resurfaced from all of the imagery that we’re seeing from the very brave journalists in Gaza.”

Alam also spoke to ongoing efforts by state actors to conflate Israel with the Jewish people. “Our government merges the ideas of Judaism and Zionism,” Alam said, noting that friends with Jewish Voice for Peace have supported him through his ordeal. “Criticizing a country or criticizing a state does not mean you’re criticizing an entire group of people or an entire faith.” 

Asante said she fears that, by the logic underpinning the state’s prosecution, hate crime laws could be used to shield not only governments and states but even for-profit corporations. “Hate-crime statutes were supposed to be for people who are vulnerable,” she said. “But now, if you’re saying ‘Fuck Israel’ and an entity like the government is going to be protected, how will we know that they’re not going to extend it to Amazon?”

The case of the Tarrant Three has gained national attention as outlets around the country have reported on the trial. Alam, meanwhile, remains singularly focused on “shedding light” on the genocide in Gaza—and he stands by the words painted on the site of the church that March night.

“Free Palestine,” Alam told the Observer during the interview at his family home, “and Fuck Israel.” 

The post Inside Tarrant County’s Dogged Prosecution of a Pro-Palestine Activist appeared first on The Texas Observer.