By many measures, millennials are doing considerably well financially. Still, fewer younger adults are thinking about retiring in the traditional sense one day.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetirement is becoming more deprioritized,\u201d said Michael Liersch, head of advice and planning at Wells Fargo.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen or 15 years ago that was always the number one goal,\u201d he said. Now, \u201cactually living one\u2019s life in the moment is a bigger priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although this cohort is very focused on building wealth, \u201cthe end game might not be no longer working and sitting on my Adirondack chair,\u201d he said. \u201cThat just might not be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than one-third, or 37%, of Americans want a retirement that looks different from previous generations, according to a 2024 report from Edelman Financial Engines.<\/p>\n
Most say that means a more active and adventurous lifestyle. And 32% say they will never be able to \u201cfully\u201d retire, the report found.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis contrasts sharply with retirement stereotypes of the past, where stability and relaxation were the primary goals,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the median wealth of younger millennials and older Gen Zers \u2014 or those born in the 1990s \u2014 \u201cmore than quadrupled\u201d in recent years, according to an analysis of 2022 data by the St. Louis Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n
The number of millennials with seven-figure retirement balances also jumped 400% as of the third quarter of 2024, compared to a year earlier, according to data from Fidelity Investments prepared for CNBC.<\/p>\n
Compared to other generations, millennials are also more likely to say that their income went up over the last few months and that they expect their earnings potential to increase again in the year ahead, another report by TransUnion found.<\/p>\n
Collectively, millennials are now worth about $15.95 trillion, up from $3.94 trillion five years earlier, according to the most recent Federal Reserve data as of the third quarter of 2024.<\/p>\n
But a lot has changed for younger generations, too, said Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia Business School.<\/p>\n
What assets millennials have on hand and their relative financial stability \u201cis determined by how they shape up against immediate needs \u2014 such as housing down payments or emergency medical payments \u2014 and their capacity to generate income to replace salaries and wages in retirement amidst the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions, or the elimination of workplace pensions all together,\u201d House said.<\/p>\n
Most younger adults are no longer getting pensions of any kind, so individuals who enter retirement age are now more dependent on personal savings and Social Security, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of financial priorities that we are all trying to reach simultaneously,\u201d said Sophia Bera Daigle, founder and CEO of Gen Y Planning, a financial planning firm for millennials.<\/p>\n
Many millennials must contend with hefty student loan balances, mortgages, car payments and child care costs in addition to saving for retirement or future college costs, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are really feeling the cash crunch in their 30s to 40s,\u201d said Bera Daigle, a certified financial planner and a member of CNBC\u2019s Advisor Council. \u201cTheir net worth is going up but they don\u2019t feel like they are getting ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
That has also contributed to changing views on retirement for millennials, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got into this business, retirement was about quitting the grind … playing golf,\u201d Bera Daigle said.<\/p>\n
Now, \u201cit\u2019s really more about flexibility,\u201d she added. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what retirement will look like in 20 years… there\u2019s a lot more emphasis on choosing the work they want to do in their 60s.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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By many measures, millennials are doing considerably well financially. Still, fewer younger adults are thinking about retiring in the traditional sense one day. \u201cRetirement is becoming more deprioritized,\u201d said Michael Liersch, head of advice and planning at Wells Fargo. \u201cTen or 15 years ago that was always the number one goal,\u201d he said. Now, \u201cactually living one\u2019s life in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wealthmarketinsights.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}