NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Boomers lost a significant chunk of their retirement nest eggs in the recession, but it was members of Generation X who were really hit the hardest, according to a report released Thursday.

If they don’t start paying off debt and saving more, Gen Xers (those between the ages of 38 and 47) and younger Boomers (those in their late 40s to mid-50s) are on track to retire financially worse off than the generations before them, according to analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

“Many younger Americans were already behind in saving for retirement, and suddenly millions of them were out of work or owned homes worth far less than they had been just a few years earlier,” the report said.

Including Social Security benefits, Gen Xers are projected to have enough money in retirement to replace only half of their annual pre-retirement earnings. Financial planners recommend retirement savers aim to replace 70% to 100% of pre-retirement income.

Between 2007 and 2010, members of Gen X saw their median net worth sink 45% from $75,077 to $41,600. That’s compared to a drop of around 25% for both younger Baby Boomers and older Boomers, between the ages 58 and 67.

By the end of the recession, Gen X held investments, retirement plans and savings with a median value of just $14,500, down from $19,382 in 2007. Younger Boomers had median savings of $32,135 and older Boomers had $55,850, according to the report.

And while only two-thirds of Gen Xers owned homes in 2010, those who did saw their median home equity plummet by 27% during the past three years, Pew said. In comparison, the home equity of younger Baby Boomers fell 14%, and older Boomers saw a 22% drop.

Gen Xers were also plagued by significantly higher debt levels, including mortgages, auto loans, credit card and student loan debt — much of which was accumulated in the years leading up to the recession. In 2010, Gen X had a median debt level of more than $80,000, while younger Baby Boomers carried about $60,000 and older Boomers had less than $40,000.

Younger Boomers, between 48 and 57 years old, are slightly better off with a median expected income replacement rate of about 60%, although it pales in comparison to the roughly 80% projected for their older counterparts.

“Unless this path is altered, younger Baby Boomers and Gen Xers may face a real possibility of downward mobility in their Golden Years,” said Diana Elliott, research manager for Pew’s economic mobility project.

Pew’s study did not look at retirement security for anyone born after 1975, which leaves out the youngest Gen Xers and Generation Y, also commonly dubbed the “Millennials,” who were born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. The country’s youngest workers, who are saddled with historic levels of student loan debt and are starting their careers in an unfriendly job market, likely face similar levels of retirement insecurity.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — When Facebook made its stock market debut last May, Barry Graubart was set to buy $10,000 worth of shares in the initial public offering. But due to Nasdaq’s trading glitches, his buy order never went through.

A year later, with Facebook’s stock down 30% from its IPO price of $38, the digital media professional is relieved.

“In hindsight, I guess I was one of the lucky ones,” said Graubart, 48, who had placed an order to buy Facebook shares at $41 per share or below through his Charles Schwab trading account on May 18, 2012. “Watching the stock’s performance after the IPO, I felt relieved to have missed out.”

Facebook’s IPO was one of the most widely anticipated in history. It was a company that both Wall Street professionals and the average investor understood and used every day. But Facebook’s first day on the market was chaotic, to say the least, botched by technical malfunctions at Nasdaq, including a late opening and delayed order execution messages.

Amid that chaos, Graubart’s order went unfulfilled and expired at the end of the trading day. A spokesperson for Charles Schwab said “the issues were industry-wide and not specific to Schwab, but we understood people’s frustration and worked with clients on a case by case basis to resolve problems as quickly as possible.”

But Graubart doesn’t regret the fact that his order failed.

After watching Facebook shares slump below their IPO price to just $32 in the first few days of trading, Graubart initially figured he would wait until they dropped to about $25 before he considered buying them again. That happened just a couple of weeks later. But Graubart still sat tight.

“In the aftermath of the IPO, there was a lot of pressure on the stock,” he said. “There weren’t any compelling drivers to short it or make it a long-term buy at that time, so I decided to sit back and watch.”

Graubart said he is now invested in Facebook through some mutual funds he owns, but he still hasn’t bought individual shares of the company.

Graubart, an Irvington, N.Y. resident, said he was initially attracted to Facebook because he had never seen a product gain adoption as quickly or as at large a scale. But now, he’s looking for Facebook to show it can make money on its more than a billion users around world, particularly the growing number that access the social media service on their smartphones and tablets.

“The management has been doing a great job focusing on how to monetize from its mobile users in the last six months, but they still haven’t figured it out completely,” he said.

For now, Graubart is a believer in LinkedIn when it comes to social media stocks.

“LinkedIn serves a distinct business-to-business need,” said Graubart, who first bought LinkedIn in the fall of 2011 around $80 per share and has watched the stock more than double since. “They’re able to generate a ton of revenue from people willing to pay for their premium service, from recruiters to job hunters to those in business development and sales.”

While Graubart considers himself fortunate to have missed out on buying Facebook shares last year, Tom Boutell isn’t sweating the fact that he did buy on the first day.

Boutell bought shares of Facebook at $42 through his E*Trade account on the day of the IPO. Still, he’s confident that the stock will eventually get back to, and surpass, the IPO price.

“I bought the stock because I believe it will eventually be worth more than I paid for it,” he said. “That time has not come yet, but it’s a long-term purchase.”

SAN FRANCISCO (CNNMoney) — Google spent the second half of the 2000s turning Google Talk into the de facto replacement for AOL Instant Messenger. Then, over the past few years, Google stopped paying attention to it altogether.

During this span, when, where and how we chat has changed considerably. Google has responded with a spate of new communication technologies. Both inside and outside the company, chat options are fractured.

Google’s newest product — Hangouts — isn’t fundamentally different than other current cross-platform messaging apps, but it unifies many of Google’s own products in a smart way.

For those who have been faithful to Gmail Chat/Google Talk over the years, Hangouts will be a big change, but it still preserves much of what you love.

For starters, Hangouts is linked to your Google+ account, but thankfully, you’re not forced to interact with the social network if you don’t want to. And if all your friends are still using the older Talk, or Gmail Chat or Google+ Messenger apps, you will still be able to chat.

A big philosophical shift, however, comes in the form of presence. Whereas Google Talk focused itself around who was online or offline, Hangouts is an experience that is built around the philosophy that you’re always available, thanks to the fact that many of us now have smartphones. The app is not only available on Chrome and Android, but also — finally — iOS.

When you leave the chat, the conversation doesn’t just disappear. It’s like text messaging. If you’re not actively engaging with hangouts when a new message arrives, it sits in the thread, waiting until the moment you return. For some, the prospect of not being able to fully log off is a harrowing shift. For those comfortable with the “always on” culture, it’s a welcome, and much needed addition.

True to it’s moniker, Hangouts is also built around the concept of group chats, which is a big reason why Google isn’t as concerned with your availability status. The change helps keep conversations fluid. Icons clearly indicate when you’ve left a message, and when you’re actively moving in and out of a conversation.

It’s easy to share images on Hangouts, jump to a video chat or overwhelm a friend with emojis. It’s fast, simple, and easy to launch a new chat. No matter what device you’re using, the experience is always the same. All messages sync between all devices and features are consistent. You still can’t share video files, but that’s one of the few limitations.

Hangouts still has some work to do in other areas if it really wants to trump the likes of Facebook, Apple, Microsoft (via Skype), GroupMe and WhatsApp.

Though you can send messages to any of your friends — friends using Hangouts, that is — at any time, it would still be nice to have some idea when they’re using the mobile version or the Chrome version of the app. There is an indicator built into the hangouts UI to show when people are active, but when and how it is used for contacts differs upon what app/service they’re using.

Then there’s SMS. Hangouts is particularly good at pulling together Google’s different messaging services and facilitating group chats, but Google Voice and SMS integration are nowhere to be found. Both Facebook’s Messenger app and Apple’s iMessage already integrate SMS, so the absence of this feature from Hangouts is conspicuous.

The biggest question mark here is the fate of Gmail chat/Google Talk. For the time being, existing users of those services will be left alone. But will they eventually be forced over to Hangouts against their will? Google said nary a word about it yesterday, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

But overall, Hangouts is a much needed revamp of Google’s chat service that will serve the company well going forward.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The class of 2013 is in for a rude awakening this graduation season.

Between ballooning student loans, credit cards and money owed to family members, they are facing an average $35,200 in college-related debt, a Fidelity survey of 750 college graduates shows.

And for half of this year’s graduates, the amount of debt they racked up while in school comes as a shock.

“We’re tending to find people are still surprised at the level of debt they’re graduating with, which suggests we still have a long way to go in terms of having conversations about planning for college, saving for college and figuring out the best place to go [to college],” said Keith Bernhardt, vice president of college planning at Fidelity Investments.

The bulk of the class of 2013′s debt is in government loans, with graduates owing an average of $26,000. They also had an average of $19,000 in private loans, $18,000 in state loans, $13,000 in personal and family loans and $3,000 in credit card debt.

After realizing the extent of their debt, 39% said they would have done things differently — like saving earlier, more thoroughly researching financial aid or looking for ways to save more and spend less while at school — that’s up from 25% in 2011.

A small group, or 12% of graduates, regretted their decisions entirely, saying their college education didn’t justify the debt burden.

But now they’re forced to face reality. Half of respondents said tackling their student debt is a financial priority, and half said it will take them more than nine years to become debt-free.

The majority, or 92%, say they will pay back their debt using income from their job, 25% said they will get help from their parents or family, 24% will use their savings and 21% will get a second job. About 7% of graduates don’t plan on ever being able to entirely pay off their loans.

Others started taking action earlier to try to soften the blow. About 85% of college graduates contributed their own money toward college costs — with 27% reporting that they contributed more than $10,000. And 57% said they chose their major specifically because they thought it would land them a higher-paying job.