NEW YORK -- A new study by the Pew Research Center found 66 percent of baby boomers find it harder to get ahead now than in 1998. It also found that 86 percent say it's harder to maintain their standard of living than just five years ago.

"There just seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel."

As they approach their golden years, baby boomers like Ros Aaron are worried -- not just about their own futures, but about their kids'.

"I don't know what's gonna be for them," Aaron told New York Tv station WNBC. "Jenna's graduating in four years. At least Leanna has eight years before she has to worry."

She's far from alone. A new study by the Pew Research Center found that 66 percent of boomers find it harder to get ahead now than in 1998 -- more frustration than any other age group.

And 86 percent of baby boomers say it's harder to maintain their standard of living than just five years ago.

"We asked a lot of questions," said D'vera Cohn of the Pew Research Center. "Are they satisfied? Will their income go up? And they said, 'No it won't'."

Researchers say the gloomy baby boomers are even more downbeat in New York, where the cost of living is that much higher.

"My biggest concern is health care," said baby boomer Ron Kaiser.

Kaiser says, like many others born between the end of world war two and 1965, that past family success is no guarantee of the future.

"We may not do as well as our parents did," Kaiser said. We worry about our kids, but our parents had money in retirement to travel and do what they worked for."

All this uncertainty, even though boomers are the ones with more money to weather a rough economy, is a somber turn for a generation whose outlook used to be brighter than most.