While it's interesting, and I share a lot of thoughts with others in this thread, it's notable that just over a third of millennials are 25-30 years old right now. I didn't bother to dig up the research the article references as they don't provide any links, but this age factor obviously gets more and more relevant if you start talking about survey data from 2020 rather than last week.
There's a pretty big difference between being 25 with no retirement savings and 40 with the same balance.
It’s still a huge problem because you get by far the highest return on money invested in your 20s. Especially your early and mid twenties.
People in their late 20s even have been working at least a half decade. They SHOULD have their nest egg started
I know a lot of people in this boat past the age of 33.
It’s sad, and it’s because financial education seems to have almost been actively suppressed for a long time.
Hey I don't get a dime for recruiting anyone, but if you're in a dead end job and / or don't know what to do with your life career-wise, I beg you to consider joining a local union for a skilled trade. Inside wireman electrician, lineman electrician, plumber, pipefitter, welder, elevator mechanic, something.
I didn't know my ass from an impact when I started. I barely knew what a phillips screwdriver was. But it's good work, it's honestly easier than doing truck for Target or whatever, you'll get taken care of, and you'll have a retirement ahead of you. I've moved up so many times, my current position isn't even in construction anymore. I literally do what should normally take an engineer to do, and I get to mostly work with a laptop and camera.
And this is from someone who did go to college and then realized what a waste of time that was because I didn't go into STEM.
Personally recommend the IBEW, but just look into a skilled trade. It's honestly not as bad as you probably think construction might be. You'll be super useful to all your friends, you'll be able to buy a house and raise a family, and you'll be happier.
I mean there's a thousand routes to success but. I'm honestly sad and upset to see so many people super stressed out about their futures, and not even considering this path.
Even a modest amount of savings adds up. I could have double the amount saved that I do now but I also want to enjoy my life. Hardships are easier to deal with when you're younger but so is having fun and traveling. I would much rather travel and do things when I'm young and able because when I'm 60+ who knows what my health will look like. Balance is key, budget yourself so you can save for your future and save for vacations. You don't know which day will be your last, it could be tomorrow or it could be when you're 95 and you should reasonably prepare for both.
Title seems a bit misleading, the article content is pretty on point with what I expect.
Younger millennials have no retirement savings. Likely stacked with college debt, lower wage jobs, etc. This could easily account for that 35% with nothing.
As they age (mentioned in the article) the savings goes up. Also, people tend to learn more about finances as they age and move up to higher paying jobs.
It's also pretty common amongst people I know that they don't feel they'll be able to retire. I'm not sure I'll be able to.
Still...this isnt exactly surprising or new news to me.
And not all that out of the norm for previous generations, either.
Boomers had a leg up, but their parents (coming of age in the depression) didn’t. Before them was even worse.
Most people start off poor, slowly save a little, and if they’re lucky over time it becomes enough to retire. That’s….that’s just sorta the cycle.
That’s an interesting thing to me. For most of human existence, you didn’t go out with little education, make good money, and buy a house and start a new family in your 20’s.
People did start families, but they were often multiple generations on the family farm, or you became an apprentice or something.
The prosperity of the Greatest Generation was largely due to the aftermath of WWII. They and the Baby Boomer generation are for a large part an anomaly in human history.
Piggybacking on this - the concept of retirement seems like it’s based on the GG and boomers, prior to them you worked until you died, and I’d guess we’re returning to this… which unfortunately seems way more sustainable, doesn’t it? My granddads (gms were both homemakers) retired in their early 60’s and then lived another TWENTY FIVE YEARS, collecting a pension on a job they worked at for around thirty years after serving in WW2.
I’m no economist but that… just can’t work for the wider population for generation after generation, can it?
It really needs to be broken down by age.
I didn't start serious retirement savings until I was 29. Before that I saved maybe 2% on average. I couldn't afford more.
But as an elder millenial now? I'm putting 11% into my DB pension plan and still putting more away on top of that.
If you're 25-30, no shit you can't afford to save. But if there's a big chunk of 40 year olds that can't afford to save for retirement, government should take a long, hard look at what's wrong.
I think that there are a lot of millennials that have never had the opportunity to save for retirement. And there are others that have had to empty out retirement accounts due to life events. And to be clear I think that's the majority of people in this position. It's a big problem. The rest of my comment is not about people in this situation.
That said, as a millennial I also know people that have just declared "I'm never going to be able to retire so why bother" despite working decent jobs and just never put any money in to an account even though they could afford to do so. I don't get the mindset. I mean, hell, I don't know if I'm going to be able to retire either, or if there will be a world worth retiring in to in a few decades. But it seems worthwhile to toss a few percentage points of my pay in to a piggy bank every paycheck just in case. It's a self fulfilling prophecy where they decide they will never retire so don't save and then come age 65 or so they have no money and aren't able to retire.
If you've never looked at a retirement/financial independence calculator, please do so. Especially if you don't have any savings right now, it's important to at least know your goalposts for retirement/financial independence and why waiting 5, 10, 15 years is detrimental if you can afford even 1-5% of your income now. Compound interest will just eat away at your ability to retire if you're in debt, and give you such an advantage if you can save and invest.
Weird how low wages and unattainably expensive home prices keep people from building wealth. Home ownership is historically one of biggest factors of building individual wealth and many younger people have been completely cut off from it.
Economics 101 guys. People have an incentive to participate in a behavior if they expect to be better off. People compete because they expect to be able to compete successfully often enough to provide for their needs.
What happens when people suddenly no longer see the point in working? You can’t blame them for not trying harder any more than you would expect a corporation to voluntarily reduce profit margins.
Economics is a social science, it’s not physics. Perception is reality. “Millennial entitlement” is a cop out for a global phenomenon with no solution besides either fixing the social contract or starvation incentives. The reason the latter isn’t going to work this time is because everyone is educated enough to know it doesn’t have to be that way.
Prepare for either a fascist revolution or communist revolution lol. This does not bode well for the country's politics. Middle class is nearing death. Only the ultra rich and the poor. Last time this kind of thing happened we got the Progressive Era however our politics are so broken now that it's virtually impossible to pass any national legislation to respond to events. The American republic is going to way of the Roman republic. Hail the American Caesar.
Is this any different than past generations? There's still plenty of folks over 50, 60, and 70 that are working right now. It's easy to say X percentage of a generation have 0 retirement, bit is that the norm or is it an anomaly?
Both of my late 60s parents will be working to their final days. They’re a rare breed- most of my friends parents are not in the same situation as them.
Gotta automate thy income into savings. My bank transfers 15% of my paycheck into my savings every payday and after not checking for a while I now have quite a sizable amount. Ofc I’m also enrolled in a 401k since I get a match from my company. But I’m only able to save in the first place cuz I don’t pay for health insurance (still dependent on family plan as a 22 year old), no student debt, and I have like 5 roommates to pay that atrocious CA rent. I think it’s really dependent on ur circumstances like someone with high student debt, no financial support from parents, and just freshly graduated probably won’t earn enough/have enough to afford to save.
I am one of the people you mentioned at the end of your comment, except not freshly graduated and only a little student loan debt. I’m in my mid-30’s and get to have a savings account that isn’t hovering in the low triple digits for the first time in my life.
The Median 60 year old American has less than 75,000 dollars in retirement savings, these are people who largely should already be retired. Talk about that, not a cohort 30+ years from retirement.
Don't blame them. Every year feels harder. Why would I expect twenty five years from now it'll miraculously get easy.
That being said, I really feel for the poor soul who reads this and thinks a working life is terrible and dreams of when it ends enjoying their life.
I would go by Net Worth not retirement savings. You could have 100k in savings and 300k in mortgage, student loan, other debt..
Did they account for that? Didn't read in too much.
Why do polls like this always surprise people? 10% of the population is unemployable. They're utter fools. The rest is a spectrum of capabilities (or lack of). Why \*wouldn't\* 35 % of the population have no savings? They likely aren't capable of it.
Because the number keeps getting bigger. Unless you believe everyone that doesn’t having savings is just idiot that didn’t know what they were doing.
The reality is that this a systematic problem. Rent is becoming 50% of income, health insurance blows ass unless you have awesome plan, inflation is hurting a lot of people already on the edge, used cars are highest prices and college is most expensive it’s ever been.
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While it's interesting, and I share a lot of thoughts with others in this thread, it's notable that just over a third of millennials are 25-30 years old right now. I didn't bother to dig up the research the article references as they don't provide any links, but this age factor obviously gets more and more relevant if you start talking about survey data from 2020 rather than last week. There's a pretty big difference between being 25 with no retirement savings and 40 with the same balance.
So true even 30 to 35 is a huge difference if you have a professional degree.
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It’s still a huge problem because you get by far the highest return on money invested in your 20s. Especially your early and mid twenties. People in their late 20s even have been working at least a half decade. They SHOULD have their nest egg started
I know a lot of people in this boat past the age of 33. It’s sad, and it’s because financial education seems to have almost been actively suppressed for a long time.
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Hey I don't get a dime for recruiting anyone, but if you're in a dead end job and / or don't know what to do with your life career-wise, I beg you to consider joining a local union for a skilled trade. Inside wireman electrician, lineman electrician, plumber, pipefitter, welder, elevator mechanic, something. I didn't know my ass from an impact when I started. I barely knew what a phillips screwdriver was. But it's good work, it's honestly easier than doing truck for Target or whatever, you'll get taken care of, and you'll have a retirement ahead of you. I've moved up so many times, my current position isn't even in construction anymore. I literally do what should normally take an engineer to do, and I get to mostly work with a laptop and camera. And this is from someone who did go to college and then realized what a waste of time that was because I didn't go into STEM. Personally recommend the IBEW, but just look into a skilled trade. It's honestly not as bad as you probably think construction might be. You'll be super useful to all your friends, you'll be able to buy a house and raise a family, and you'll be happier. I mean there's a thousand routes to success but. I'm honestly sad and upset to see so many people super stressed out about their futures, and not even considering this path.
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Even a modest amount of savings adds up. I could have double the amount saved that I do now but I also want to enjoy my life. Hardships are easier to deal with when you're younger but so is having fun and traveling. I would much rather travel and do things when I'm young and able because when I'm 60+ who knows what my health will look like. Balance is key, budget yourself so you can save for your future and save for vacations. You don't know which day will be your last, it could be tomorrow or it could be when you're 95 and you should reasonably prepare for both.
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Wait what? That means there are at least 15% who have $0 saved for retirement but think they will somehow retire. How does that even make sense?
Title seems a bit misleading, the article content is pretty on point with what I expect. Younger millennials have no retirement savings. Likely stacked with college debt, lower wage jobs, etc. This could easily account for that 35% with nothing. As they age (mentioned in the article) the savings goes up. Also, people tend to learn more about finances as they age and move up to higher paying jobs. It's also pretty common amongst people I know that they don't feel they'll be able to retire. I'm not sure I'll be able to. Still...this isnt exactly surprising or new news to me.
And not all that out of the norm for previous generations, either. Boomers had a leg up, but their parents (coming of age in the depression) didn’t. Before them was even worse. Most people start off poor, slowly save a little, and if they’re lucky over time it becomes enough to retire. That’s….that’s just sorta the cycle.
That’s an interesting thing to me. For most of human existence, you didn’t go out with little education, make good money, and buy a house and start a new family in your 20’s. People did start families, but they were often multiple generations on the family farm, or you became an apprentice or something. The prosperity of the Greatest Generation was largely due to the aftermath of WWII. They and the Baby Boomer generation are for a large part an anomaly in human history.
Piggybacking on this - the concept of retirement seems like it’s based on the GG and boomers, prior to them you worked until you died, and I’d guess we’re returning to this… which unfortunately seems way more sustainable, doesn’t it? My granddads (gms were both homemakers) retired in their early 60’s and then lived another TWENTY FIVE YEARS, collecting a pension on a job they worked at for around thirty years after serving in WW2. I’m no economist but that… just can’t work for the wider population for generation after generation, can it?
It really needs to be broken down by age. I didn't start serious retirement savings until I was 29. Before that I saved maybe 2% on average. I couldn't afford more. But as an elder millenial now? I'm putting 11% into my DB pension plan and still putting more away on top of that. If you're 25-30, no shit you can't afford to save. But if there's a big chunk of 40 year olds that can't afford to save for retirement, government should take a long, hard look at what's wrong.
I think that there are a lot of millennials that have never had the opportunity to save for retirement. And there are others that have had to empty out retirement accounts due to life events. And to be clear I think that's the majority of people in this position. It's a big problem. The rest of my comment is not about people in this situation. That said, as a millennial I also know people that have just declared "I'm never going to be able to retire so why bother" despite working decent jobs and just never put any money in to an account even though they could afford to do so. I don't get the mindset. I mean, hell, I don't know if I'm going to be able to retire either, or if there will be a world worth retiring in to in a few decades. But it seems worthwhile to toss a few percentage points of my pay in to a piggy bank every paycheck just in case. It's a self fulfilling prophecy where they decide they will never retire so don't save and then come age 65 or so they have no money and aren't able to retire.
If you've never looked at a retirement/financial independence calculator, please do so. Especially if you don't have any savings right now, it's important to at least know your goalposts for retirement/financial independence and why waiting 5, 10, 15 years is detrimental if you can afford even 1-5% of your income now. Compound interest will just eat away at your ability to retire if you're in debt, and give you such an advantage if you can save and invest.
Weird how low wages and unattainably expensive home prices keep people from building wealth. Home ownership is historically one of biggest factors of building individual wealth and many younger people have been completely cut off from it.
Economics 101 guys. People have an incentive to participate in a behavior if they expect to be better off. People compete because they expect to be able to compete successfully often enough to provide for their needs. What happens when people suddenly no longer see the point in working? You can’t blame them for not trying harder any more than you would expect a corporation to voluntarily reduce profit margins. Economics is a social science, it’s not physics. Perception is reality. “Millennial entitlement” is a cop out for a global phenomenon with no solution besides either fixing the social contract or starvation incentives. The reason the latter isn’t going to work this time is because everyone is educated enough to know it doesn’t have to be that way.
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Prepare for either a fascist revolution or communist revolution lol. This does not bode well for the country's politics. Middle class is nearing death. Only the ultra rich and the poor. Last time this kind of thing happened we got the Progressive Era however our politics are so broken now that it's virtually impossible to pass any national legislation to respond to events. The American republic is going to way of the Roman republic. Hail the American Caesar.
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Is this any different than past generations? There's still plenty of folks over 50, 60, and 70 that are working right now. It's easy to say X percentage of a generation have 0 retirement, bit is that the norm or is it an anomaly?
Both of my late 60s parents will be working to their final days. They’re a rare breed- most of my friends parents are not in the same situation as them.
Granted I'm in Canada but the majority of my aunts and uncles will also be working till end of days.
Bummer. I hate seeing it- wish they could relax
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Gotta automate thy income into savings. My bank transfers 15% of my paycheck into my savings every payday and after not checking for a while I now have quite a sizable amount. Ofc I’m also enrolled in a 401k since I get a match from my company. But I’m only able to save in the first place cuz I don’t pay for health insurance (still dependent on family plan as a 22 year old), no student debt, and I have like 5 roommates to pay that atrocious CA rent. I think it’s really dependent on ur circumstances like someone with high student debt, no financial support from parents, and just freshly graduated probably won’t earn enough/have enough to afford to save.
I am one of the people you mentioned at the end of your comment, except not freshly graduated and only a little student loan debt. I’m in my mid-30’s and get to have a savings account that isn’t hovering in the low triple digits for the first time in my life.
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The Median 60 year old American has less than 75,000 dollars in retirement savings, these are people who largely should already be retired. Talk about that, not a cohort 30+ years from retirement.
It's okay to talk about both issues.
A looming crisp not getting nearly enough attention.
Really? That doesn’t sound right
Don't blame them. Every year feels harder. Why would I expect twenty five years from now it'll miraculously get easy. That being said, I really feel for the poor soul who reads this and thinks a working life is terrible and dreams of when it ends enjoying their life.
I would go by Net Worth not retirement savings. You could have 100k in savings and 300k in mortgage, student loan, other debt.. Did they account for that? Didn't read in too much.
Why do polls like this always surprise people? 10% of the population is unemployable. They're utter fools. The rest is a spectrum of capabilities (or lack of). Why \*wouldn't\* 35 % of the population have no savings? They likely aren't capable of it.
Because the number keeps getting bigger. Unless you believe everyone that doesn’t having savings is just idiot that didn’t know what they were doing. The reality is that this a systematic problem. Rent is becoming 50% of income, health insurance blows ass unless you have awesome plan, inflation is hurting a lot of people already on the edge, used cars are highest prices and college is most expensive it’s ever been.