Broke-ing bad

Americans born in the US of 1980s are at greater risk of becoming a "lost generation" that accumulates less wealth during their lives, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, US.

Millennials are defined as the generation born between 1981 and 1996, growing up or entering the workforce during the Great Recession of 2008.

Coming of age during the Great Recession, this millennial cohort has faced high unemployment rates, an increased cost of living and mounting debt.

"Not only is their wealth shortfall in 2016 very large in percentage terms, but the

typical 1980s family actually lost ground in relative terms between 2010 and 2016, a period of rapidly rising asset values that buoyed the wealth of all older cohorts," write the authors of the report.

As of 2016, those born in this decade had wealth levels 34 per cent below where they would be if the financial crisis hadn't occurred. Those born in the 1970s had wealth levels 18 per cent under where they should have been, and wealth levels of the 1960s people were down by 11 per cent.

While the Great Recession "inflicted deep and widespread losses of income and wealth on the typical American family" and wealth losses affected all, families younger than retirement age suffered the most.