Millennials are facing a double whammy that keeps them from putting away enough money on which to retire—not only are they carrying around a load of student debt, but they’re not willing to sacrifice current pleasures to ensure the future will be comfortable.
That’s according to a survey from Schwab Retirement Plan Services, which found that 44 percent are not saving more because they want to treat themselves to things like occasional dinners out and vacations.
Just 34 percent of Gen Xers said that, and even fewer baby boomers—only 29 percent.
In addition, more than a third of millennials (37 percent) can’t set aside more money for retirement because they’re buried in student loan payments.
They also don’t want to ask for help from financial professionals—only 22 percent said they were likely to do so, and just 7 percent are already getting financial advice—despite the fact that 49 percent admit that they don’t know what their best investment options are and only 34 percent say they are extremely or very confident in their ability to make the best 401(k) investment decisions on their own.
Now, about those Gen Xers. It’s not all about sacrificing quality-of-life fribbles in their failure to save enough for retirement; 32 percent are trying to save for their kids’ education, and that takes a chunk out of the budget.
But, those factors aside, they’re just not as focused as they should be on retirement goals.
Just 58 percent know how much they need to have saved for a comfortable retirement, and only 53 percent believe they are saving enough to retire when they want to.
In addition, Gen Xers are those most likely to have taken a loan from their 401(k): 31 percent have done so, compared to just 13 percent of millennials and 29 percent of boomers.
Boomers can be pretty pessimistic, despite 63 percent believing that they’re saving enough to retire when they want to. Only 65 percent believe that they’ll be comfortably retired in 15 years; 22 percent say they’ll be retired, but not comfortably.
And 61 percent are worried about being healthy enough to enjoy their retirement, compared with 39 percent who are worried about having enough money to enjoy it.
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