According to Bankrate, more than half of Americans fell behind on their retirement savings, and 37% owe more on credit cards than they have saved for their golden years. 

Personal finance expert George Kamel is sounding the alarm about this looming "crisis," arguing that America has become the "land of the free and home of the broke."

"It's turning into a retirement crisis. And Gen X is the next step," Kamel stressed during an appearance on "Mornings with Maria." "Gen X is saying they're going to need a miracle to retire. They're saying they need $1.5, $1.6 million to retire comfortably. And yet the median for 401(k) balance[s] is $56,000. So we've got to do something about this."

Kamel believes investing could help.

"This might be you. It might be your parents, it might be the ones after you, but you've got to do something about it. And if you don't invest anything, you won't have any money later on."

"There's a level of cynicism, and there is some reality to that,"

- Personal finance expert George Kamel 

Younger generations have become increasingly "cynical" about the U.S. economy, with many opting out of homeownership altogether. 

"They're feeling hopeless. I mean, they're looking at home values, they're going, 'Well, that'll never be me, I guess I'll rent forever.' So there's a level of cynicism and there is some reality to that. It is harder for them to get in the housing market. But as far as investing goes, they actually want to know," he said Friday.

"They want to get to where their parents were, but they want it to take five years instead of 25 or 30 years. They've got to go, 'What's going to happen 30 years from now if I don't invest? What's going to happen if I'm the hare instead of the tortoise?' There's a lot of things you can do to invest and build wealth in a very risk-free way where you're not sort of just ‘Hail Mary-ing’ your retirement."

Kamel also pointed out the importance of tackling one obstacle at a time to build your nest egg, beginning with debt. 

"I found when you do seven things at once, you don't really accomplish anything. So if you've got consumer debt, you have to tackle that first because it's robbing your ability to invest for the future. Once you knock out that thousand dollars in payments you're sending to lenders, you can then invest $1,000. Even if you start at 40 with $0, you can still retire a net worth millionaire if you just get out of that debt in a few years and get focused," Kamel concluded.