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Most Millennials Have an Unrealistic View of Their Retirement Prospects, Analysts Say (hsbc.com)
From a blog post on research firm HSBC: HSBC calls for millennials to wake up to living and working longer, as research finds only 1 in 10 expects to work past 65. Most millennials have an unrealistic view of their retirement prospects according to a new report from HSBC. The latest report in The Future of Retirement series, Shifting sands, finds that on average millennials expect to retire younger than other working age generations. Millennials expect to retire at 59, two years younger than the working age average of 61. The survey of over 18,000 people in 16 countries finds that only 10 percent of millennials expect to continue working after 65 -- even as their generation faces unprecedented financial pressures and state retirement ages continue to rise around the world. This is despite 59 percent of millennials agreeing they will live much longer and will need to support themselves for longer than previous generations.
I was thinking that I won't be able to retire the way things are.
They don't expect to live past 65, given the state of healthcare in this country.
Millenials don't expect to work past 65 because they'd be surprised if they make it past 50 without committing suicide.
I have never met someone below the age of 30 that thought they had a chance of retiring at all. The majority expects Social Security to be gone, they have never seen a job with a pension, and they just lived the prime of their lives through the economic recession shattering both 401k investments and realestate.
Millenials are keenly aware of how screwed they are.
Millennials expect to retire at 59, two years younger than the working age average of 61
So they're only slightly more optimistic than actual stats would play out? I bet that's par for the course for any generation when they were still 20 years out from retirement.
The "research" comes from the bank that would like you to be more "responsible" with your money, like giving it to them. This is a bank that has paid billions of dollars in fines over the last five years for money laundering and interest rate rigging. The key statement form the report: "Despite the apparent ‘reality gap’ in Millennials’ retirement expectations, most (68%) have started saving for retirement, at an average age of 26. Millennials are also more likely than other generations to take investment risks to boost their retirement saving..."
So it's not that the millennials are unrealistic, they are saving a plenty, it's that the Fed and other national banks are keeping the interest rates artificially low to boost asset prices and prop up failing mega-banks including HSBC. So please HSBC, tell me more about how I need to "save" more for the retirement so that the government can bail you and your ilk out again when you blow up the economy with asset bubbles.
Actually, it's hardly that simple. While you espouse a perfectly reasonable plan, there are lots of things that can get in your way. That job that concentrates on happiness (whatever that is) just laid you off. You run through your savings in 9 months looking for another job. Then your wife comes down with breast cancer.
I see this stuff all of the time. It's not just American Hedonism that is going to screw the Millenials - it's hedonism, no safety net and an economy run by those nice people that brought you 2008. If you're of the Buddhist persuasion then you can sigh, work some more on your karma and hope next time you get reincarnated as a housefly. The rest of us just get depressed.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You forgot to include a few steps:
-Be lucky enough to never face a serious health issue.
-Be lucky enough to never be unemployed for an extended period of time due to forces beyond your control.
-Have zero family or friends that failed the previous two steps. Or even better, zero family or friends.
As a boomer, when i went to college, it was $180 a semester. Even adjusted for inflation that's a fraction of the cost today.
Tuitions went up enormously when the law was changed to allow loans not forgiven by bankruptcy.
Boomers are running about 10 years behind my age for every major landmark.
That being said- save hard, don't pamper yourself with eating out and starbucks and you can still retire years earlier.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
And the lack of bankruptcy means the banks would loan unreasonable amounts of money to 18 year olds who had no clue how much pain they were signing up for.
If the bankruptcy was removed, loans would drop, and so would tuition.
Grants are a factor but they were tiny amounts of money compared to student loans.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.