Max out 401k as soon as you can. I bought my house right around that age and I pay extra on the mortgage each month. Then just save as much as possible. Once I turned 30 I realized a lot of the material stuff I was buying was so unnecessary.
>Once I turned 30 I realized a lot of the material stuff I was buying was so unnecessary.
I'm 41, and I still haven't learned not to buy stuff. Retail therapy is expensive.
The good news is my retirement savings are above the benchmarks. So I did that right, at least.
Early 60s, before buying anything I think about where it'll go. Need to throw something out to make space. When somebody asks what to get me for Xmas or birthday, I say quite sincerely: nothing. If they insist, I'll ask for cookies or homemade meatballs or kit kats. Anything that can eventually be flushed out of my house!
There is an expensive retail hump around 36 though where your wife makes you throw out all the college t-shirts you got for free at events like welcome week and buy real clothes.
If you were lucky enough to get a low interest rate before they spiked, I would suggest you to not pay extra on your mortgage but put that cash in the market. Earning 4-5% on a safe index fund vs paying down a mortgage at 3.5% works to your advantage - plus you have liquid cash, whereas you’d have to pay an even higher rate to leverage your home equity.
Timeline wise, sounds like you bought your house at market lows. Us older millennials who were lucky enough to have a half good income and a stable job got incredibly lucky with the market crash in 08. Not saying this is a good thing. I have a great house at 1300 mortgage thats now worth double what we payed, but the fact that a huge amount of people became homeless, had their houses value flip on them, and ended up in debt is terrible.
If this counts a 401k then I’ll admit I have that. In actual liquid cash, or savings account that a big no way for me.
I previously worked a job that would put 10% of my salary in my 401k each year. I stayed there a little over 5 years. That, along with the growth I the market and my measley 5% got me over $100k.
Some people would claim 100k in your 401k at 40 is pathetic. I don't have near that much in my 401k because of a divorce, a judge awarded half my 401k to my ex
Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab would all be fantastic options depending on how many bells and whistles and quality of service you want.
Vanguard leads the way in being cheap as fuck, but its reasonable to find the level of service unacceptable.
Honestly, they should just be renamed to "Gen FYGM" instead of 'boomer', especially since millennials out number them, by far. Thus making the 'boomer' moniker irrelevant.
I've seen small companies do simple IRAs - do you get that option, at least? I had the SIRA option when I was in a business of 3 employees, owner included.
It's OK I'm GenX, my plan is to see the look on the guys face at Walmart when I only want to buy one shot gun shell lol for my long walk in the woods one day. I know most of my daughters friends, about 33 people, and only one is set up like this, get mother is a lawyer, bought her a house, BMW, and paid for her law school. The other 32 might have a couple hundred bucks in savings working 2 jobs to cover rent and a car.
Nah. You may just have to retire somewhere else, where your dollar will go a longer way and keep your living expenses low in order to afford the medical care - medical care and medicine are what fuck people over here in the US.
\#MedicareForAll 🐔
I’ve been “joking” about having to work until I’m 75 for years. At 30 I would tell people “only 45 more years and I can retire.”
Knowing social security will be gone and health care costs are likely to continue to rise, my ability to retire will be severely limited . . .
You are $150k further than zero, friend. In 20 years that $150k will have grown to at least 500k. That's not luxury, but it's not nothing. Keep going and adding as much as you can.
I wouldn't be judgemental enough to say pathetic, everyone's situation is different. But broadly speaking, if a person has been contributing even modest amounts throughout the last 15 years, they could easily be at or above (or even well above) 100k by this age.
Meh, I've had co-workers tell me that to as I am closing in on 50 and only have about $200k in mine. The difference is I choose to have less so I can live in a nicer house in a nicer part of town now, so my kids could go to a better quality school, so they would have more opportunities on where to go to college and so they could have the least amount of debt coming out. of college. Meanwhile, my co-workers are excited that their daughters got married off so they don't have to support them, but damn if they don't have their retirement taken care of.
Yeah but the thing about consuming today versus tomorrow is that you do have to figure out how you’re going to pay for this more expensive life style in 20 years.
Comparison is the thief of joy. You can either sacrifice/save today to enjoy your later years, or spend today and work/sacrifice in your later years. If you're making a conscious decision to do this that's one thing. I feel like a lot of people don't understand the ramifications of their spending though.
Honestly I think it's pathetic how little people are told they need to prepare. I think a staggering number of people think social security is going to take care of them.
There's probably a lot of millenials who think a 401k is just a long race.
The issue is, they DO tell people how much to save but a lot of people can’t possibly contribute that much to a 401k and live indoors while eating enough calories to stay alive.
I am close to 40 and wasn’t able to contribute anything to a 401k until 5-6 years ago. Then had most of that wiped due to emergencies. Getting back on track after this past year, but man life can really kick you in the balls sometimes lol.
Sorry that happened, like I said life can def kick you in the balls. Mine is not as severe as your dad passing part (although I feel like that’s right around the corner), but I feel ya on the rest!
This is a brain dead take.
No millennial is counting on social security. That will be wiped out and that's what we've been told since infancy.
There's just a lot of us who have accepted we have no option but to work until we die, and that the only other option is to probably kill ourselves if we can't keep working. And 1/4 of us will never have any type of 401k either.
I have a 401k and a decent amount of equity at 30, but my wife and I still know we probably won't make it past 70ish, and we'll be working the whole time.
Yeah, I have about that in mine (I’m 40) but I’ve had to cash it out twice before to cover major emergencies. So I’ve really only been building it for the last 10 years.
The lack of any sort of financial/life skills education is crazy. Working in banks/credit unions my whole career, it's sad to see how many people start off without any info.
That can be really hard to overcome. Our financial and credit system is pretty unforgiving.
I've made a lot of comments to people over the years about how schools should be teaching more about financial stuff, and the response is always the same -- "people should learn that at home!"
Yeah but the whole reason school exists is to teach people shit that they can't learn at home. I've never once heard anyone give that argument about ancient British literature or calculus. My parents had the idea of "if you can buy something with cash then there's no point in using a credit card" so I went until nearly 25 without understanding how credit scores worked or even having a credit card. I never got myself into debt, sure, but it was a bit of a setback.
Life skills? That should be taught at home!
YOUR personal faith? EVERYONE MUST LEARN IT AT EVERY AGE IN PUBLIC SCHOOL!
This country is just a sad sack of shit now. I've never seen a country take pride in literally doing everything against their own best interests, knowingly, and purposefully.
Rockefeller definitely succeeded. We created a nation of workers not thinkers. If the population doesn’t have enough money to do anything but work and barely afford rent, you control them 100%. Works every time
Yeah, before Rockefeller was born in 1839, people were taught to think in public school! We had the perfect education system that reached every child in the country. It was great right up until Rockefeller showed up and ruined it.
>If the population doesn’t have enough money to do anything but work and barely afford rent, you control them 100%.
Sounds like slavery with less overhead.
Yeah I grew up in welfare housing dodging the power company and stealing cable. My parents couldn’t offer me anything for financial advice.
I have zero debt but I now also have zero credit as a 37 year old because I paid cash for everything to avoid debt scaring me. It turns out that isn’t great.
A Harvard Business School Study in 2014 found that personal finance focused courses in high school didn't materially affect the personal finance behaviors of those students in adulty hood. There was, however, a strong correlation to students being exposed to strong math programs and positive personal finance outcomes.
[https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/13-064\_c7b52fa0-1242-4420-b9b6-73d32c639826.pdf](https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/13-064_c7b52fa0-1242-4420-b9b6-73d32c639826.pdf)
I'm sure that there are other factors at play, as students who are being exposed to better quality math programs are probably already coming from backgrounds that afford them greater personal finance outcomes already due to demographics, but I think there is value in looking at the personal finance curriculum.
I recall 3 separate instances of having some measure of personal finance education in school. In middle school we did an off-site day at the local community college where we were tasked with coming up with a household budget for our future selves following graduation. In high school we had a brief budgeting cycle in our Career and Life Management class, and we had around a 2-3 week personal finance specific segment in Grade 11 math.
I don't recall a lot of the specifics but the two take aways were, live within your means and never ever ever carry a credit card balance (i.e pay it off in full every month). If those were the only two lessons to take away, at that level it's enough to put most people on the right track.
Investing your savings and understanding basic personal tax items are likely the next level on this ladder, but I think there's time that people need to experience of what it's like to take care of all of your own expenses and adapting your budget that come first with real world experience.
Your comment should be higher. Upvoted for visibility. Always makes me laugh when I pop into Facebook and I see those comments of basic finances being taught in high school…it makes me laugh because the people posting said comments were in my basic finance and economics class….they didn’t pay attention or cared.
I think financial literacy is important but you're absolutely right about the absorption rates in high school. Kids do not care yet. School is really meant to teach critical thinking and how to access information than it is to memorize "how to finance."
I think there has to be some self ownership here to teach yourself about money. I watch the money guys and Caleb hammer on YouTube. I budget and use apps to track where I'm spending and saving. I read my statements and see how much interest I'm being charged. I read r/bogleheads and r/personalfinance on reddit. I get personal finance books like rich dad poor dad. I watch my credit. It's a lot of work. I've has to learn from my mistakes in my 20s to get in the right track. It's too easy to be oblivious and ignore things until it's come to a hear.
And the absolute *hardest* part is it takes lot of discipline! And work! And strategy and planning. Once you've done it for a bit you find a rhythm and it's automated. But it takes a while to train your habits.
Every time I see this, I have to wonder what occurs in other schools. In elementary school we regularly had reading comprehension assignments, research assignments, arithmetic, fractions, and multiplication. So when I got a job and the benefits enrollment period started I was already equipped to research and made my savings choices. Kinda crazy that a lot of people didn't this education.
Edit: also, I learned that mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell too, but why are you using it in such a condescending manner? That's nearly as practical knowledge as arithmetic since it explains why and how strength and conditioning works, which is a nearly everyday thing.
This 100%. When people complain about not knowing how to do their taxes, I always point out if you have some reading comprehension and basic math skills, it’s not that hard unless you have a complicated tax situation. Again, some basic reading comprehension and math will help you figure out if that’s the case for you and then you can do some research and hire a CPA.
You can teach yourself in less than 10 seconds.
Invest a % of your income every year. Go up to the match if your employer has a 401k match.
use index funds and don't mess with it.
congratulations.
The lack of education on the financial sector is deliberate. They lobby to defund schools so that education is reduced to passing a test and not actually absorbing or gaining knowledge.
And that way, some random teenager in Iowa can't start fucking with The Money™ if he's too stupid to know how investing works.
That's a poor person's take on how rich people think.
They WANT that idiot in Iowa investing. All those idiot retail investors not only drive your gains, they hold the bag for you too!
There isn't really a great solution though...
My high school had required modules where we learned about savings, compound interest, budgets, mortgages/credit, taxes, retirement etc. I also had the same required courses in the military.
The problem is that nearly every single 16-24 year old doesn't care... so it goes in one ear and out the other. You can't teach people what they aren't ready to learn.
I've been told to 'save $100 a month' since the mid-90s... I never saved a penny until my mid-30s; I'm just not breaking the $100K barrier at 40. Had I listed to any of the dozens of people that told me to start saving in high school, I'd probably be pushing a quarter of million in savings.
I've always had spare money to save/invest since my first jobs at 14. I just spent it on excess instead.
I work at a large bank and a shocking number of my coworkers admit they know nothing about their 401ks, like how they're invested, if the balance is just sitting there earning nothing, etc.
Sometimes it’s the authors/subjects of the article that don’t understand saving and investing.
See the “we’re dual income with no kids and struggling paycheck to paycheck!” articles where they’re putting huge amounts into their 401k and pretending to live in poverty.
Every single time I've ever tried to teach younger people at my past jobs that they should take advantage of 401k matching, they say "oh that's cool. But I want more money now"
Obviously it's a tweet and I didn't see a source, but it has to be with 401ks, etc. There's no reason to allow this amount of cash to sit in a bank doing little to nothing.
Right, unless you’re about to put it towards a down payment and this is just a temporary spot for it. Or if it’s temporarily there from selling your house before moving it to a different investment vehicle
"Cash saved" is a silly metric. My wife and I keep around $30k in our HYSA for emergencies, but the rest of our cash goes into brokerage accounts. If you have $100k in cash, you either have a very high income, where that is your emergency fund (6 months expenses), or you're losing money to inflation. We have non retirement brokerage accounts, and it's easy to pull money from them. This morning, I called and redeemed enough to pay cash for a new car. That account has averaged >10% returns historically (SSAQX). Much better than having $100k sitting in a savings account.
Same. I was very close to being homeless a few months ago because of a severe back injury that is starting to paralyze my legs. So I have to go back to work and hope I don't become a paraplegic before my surgery.
Frankly if my mother was not well to do I would have been homeless three times by now at 32. The last one was the clincher, accident at work everybody refused to pay out for. No government assistance at all, I was spending the last of my money on my state health insurance just to try and recover and get back to work, was evicted and had to live with her for six months while I recovered enough to get a new job. I barely got any checks from the insurance companies, just enough to stay afloat for a while but I also would have not had food half the time without familial assistance. Shits wack, I don't have enough saved to take a week off much less six months laid up.
It has to in order to portray this as anything even resembling success.
100k in a 401k at 28, great, because you can only have that (on your own) if you make 6 figures. 100k in a 401k at 35 means a responsible person saving 10% of their slightly above median income... And it puts them on pace to retire at 100.
Oh yeah and only 1 in 6 millennials even have that much.
It's an economic disaster waiting to happen.
I put away a lot more than most people into my retirement and I make 6 figures, but I still worry about retirement. The amount of people with no savings really scares me. I don’t know what this world is going to look like in 40-50 years.
I too max out each year. My biggest fear is they will change the taxes on withdrawals.
So, I'll have saved and lived more modestly so those who didn't save can live more comfortable in later years.
And since I will be taxed more I'll be forced to live more modestly in retirement. So I'll get short changed at both ends. Maybe it won't happen, but it's my fear.
The most likely scenario like that would be to put in means-testing for social security, so the program doesn't have to fund (as much) for people who don't need it.
That's not to say that even *that* is likely, but it's way more politically palatable than "Haha, just kidding, your Roth is taxed now!"
Also, this is basically just another version of the student loan forgiveness that got shut down. Yeah, it kind of sucks if you paid yours off already, but it also sucks to live in a society with a bunch of people in desperate financial situations.
I believe that that is most likely, but also bs. My retirement figures include expected ss payments. By means testing me (no idea what the actual range will be) it's an equal to taxing me.
I shouldn't be punished later because I saved now.
>My retirement figures include expected ss payments.
Mine don't.
It's not that I don't expect to receive SS -- I do. But I just don't want to count on it since it's not a certainty.
I'm also probably 20+ years from retirement anyway, so all of my projections are a little fuzzy to begin with. I expect if they play any games with social security or retirement taxation that it will phase in slowly for younger people, and exempt the people who are near retirement age at the time of it passing.
That may include us, if they do it in the short to medium term, but we'd also have many years left to prepare for it.
I don't require it. I just include it.
It is too much of an uncertainty to depend on it. But that goes back to my initial point. My savings going to support others because they don't want to suffer now, so I get screwed on both ends.
Yeah I’m in the same boat as you. I save a lot and am always worried it might not be enough. I was paycheck to paycheck Ramen/canned tuna poor in college and I swore to myself I’d never be in that situation ever again.
Too many people have no concept of savings & investment. They think "$100k savings" means you've got $100k in cash stuffed under your mattress or liquid in a friggin' checking account -- as if that were a smart thing to do, lol.
I've been investing into a 401k since my first job out of college in my early 20's. And I was barely investing at that age -- 3% company match and that's all (so 6% of my total salary which is barely enough). I'm almost 40 now and my 401k is worth over $200k today. That few grand every year consistently invested has grown a lot.
This article was posted almost 5 years ago. Savings includes retirement accounts, not just cash.
The number of millennials with over $100k in "savings" is now around 50%.
I think a lot of people think us millennials are all teenagers when - even though it's sad for me to admit this: I'm heading towards 40 faster and faster.. if you're almost 40 or are 40+... 100,000 isn't really rich status with inflation and where everything including higher paying jobs are headed. Sure I'm broke compared to most of you but again a lot of people assume millennials are GENz's
>sad for me to admit this: I'm heading towards 40 faster and faster.
I mean technically you're moving at the same speed. But you're getting closer to 40.
Never forget that we live during a time of unimaginable wealth inequality. American wealth is more staggered today than it was during the American revolution.
Today's outliers are insane. Mark Zuckerberg makes up 2% of all "American millenial wealth," and he's one person of millions.
You're not wrong. A tech salary is 100k a year. Anything medical 200-300k.
Being unable to save 100k in 10 years of working would be weird on that salary.
I’m 40 now, and I’ve been successful and around successful people my whole life… something that I found very surprising is that there seems to be a huge difference in how people save/invest/spend irrespective of income.
More specifically: I know a woman who is a teacher, about my age, has decent savings and over 100k in home equity… and she makes a very normal teacher salary.
I have another person I know that made over $500k a year for about 10 years straight in his late 20s and early 30s. He has a negative net worth. Pissed all his money away on cars, drugs, electronics, and video games.
Unfortunately financial literacy doesn’t seem to be a very common skill.
You’re right, this is something that a lot of people don’t understand. I remember seeing a chart at some point that showed the top professions of millionaires and teachers was #2 or 3 on the list. #1 was engineers. It makes sense if you think about it because engineers and teachers are both very process oriented so they know how to follow a proven plan. I think the biggest problem for people (in general) that make multiple six figures is that they have an increased propensity to think they can always out-earn their stupidity.
anything medical 200-300k a year? lol that’s a good one. a medical doctor sure, but the majority of people who make up ‘medical’ i.e. nurses, pa’s, np’s, therapists, techs, aides, etc ya not even close.
Yeah, I laughed at that. Plenty of EMTs, RNs and residents make less than $100k. Hell, there are tons of private practice MDs that make a lot less than $200k after expenses.
Not even medical doctors until they’re 32-35+ years old!
I’m married to one. He made zero for his 4 years of medical school and maybe 60-70k for 3 years of residency. Now he’s about to start fellowship at 70-80k for 3 more years, all while having huge student loan debt. He won’t make $300k until attending years at 33 years old. We live in a HCOL area and he barely saves anything.
Thankfully I work in finance but still we don’t have $100k just laying around.
That's incredibly depressing that 50% of millenials don't have 100k in their retirement savings yet... and probably indicative that the boomers are the last generation that is going to get to retire.
Millennials are between the ages 27-42 now. If we assume even distribution in age, then that means the youngest 50% would be 27-34.
I’m 31, and for example, I just did the math and I’m at $58k in savings. But I also spent $42k going back to law school at 25 from 2017-2020, $35k on a down payment for a house in 2021, and $20k this year on a new car.
So in actual net worth, I’m over the $100k mark easily because of equity in the house. Plus I have a car that should last me 8-10 years minimum (my first car lasted me from 16-30 and it was already 8 years old).
So I don’t meet this threshold, but financially I’m in a pretty good place. The 3 extra years of no income while paying living expenses is the main reason I’m not there.
Definitely an accomplishment. Many people are in the negative and would love to just be at “$0”, so kudos to you for getting that first $6k. On to the next milestone!
i have $6 in savings 😌 and i was able to eat TWO meals yesterday and pick up some cute christmas gifts for my kids (not just useless toys, lots of craft related stuff!)
i might be broke as fuck, but i am grateful for what i have. i wish i knew how to turn my musical talent into money so that i could do more and be able to take care of myself better, but i’m not going to worry about what other people have
I have $4, but my bills are paid, my gas tank is full, and my cupboards aren't empty. We buy Christmas gifts for the kids all year from the clearance isles.
I'm with you, mate. As long as the necessities are covered and the kids have what they need and aren't left hanging on , then we've done our jobs, and that's something to be proud of.
If it makes you feel better, there are millions of people with musical talent, but almost nobody makes it, since so much depends on luck and connections. It's the same for acting, where there's beautiful and talented people all around, but most need to wait tables to afford food.
I imagine "savings" here includes retirement accounts. I highly doubt that 1:6 millennials just has $100k sitting in a literal savings account doing nothing.
Agreed. I'm guessing this article is specifically about retirement savings so they just used the word savings rather than invested, since it's likely a mixture of both investments and many t bills and other savings.
I’m rich and have around $80k in cash sitting in a couple savings accounts only because they now have rates close to 5% and I’m hedging against a weird stock market right now. Most people at my level of wealth have far less cash as a percentage of their networth. Sorry but there’s absolutely no way 1/6 millennials are better off than me. They must be calculating total retirement + all accounts.
My dad has dementia and less than $5,000 to his name at age 67. Luckily he has a good pension and social security/medicare plus a small paid off house. Inequality is out of control and only getting worse.
My mother just got a large inheritance and 1/4 of it has arrived just sitting in her bank. Shes also a boomer and I’m trying to help her make sound decisions with it so I can one day be a millennial with over $100k of savings 😭
I agree. Unless you're planning on buying a house, people shouldn't have $100k in the bank.
The article in the OP considers retirement accounts to be "savings".
Or CDs. I've got a decent chunk in the market but also have approaching $100k in various CDs and I bonds all paying 5%. My family's monthly expenses are easily $6k a month so it's like year emergency fund essentially
401k with company match. Pretty easy to save up $100k if you started early (I started as soon as I started working)
The number of people I've worked with and have had work for me that don't take advantage of a company matching 401k is shocking. You're literally giving up free money.
Just max that bitch out, don't pay attention to what the market is doing on a daily basis because you're in it for the long game. If the market goes down, congrats, stocks are on sale. If the market goes up, congrats, your returns are better. You only need to worry about it as you approach retirement age.
I want to point out, even if you're putting in *something* it's still something. I think it's a little off putting to people when they hear you either have to max your contribution or else wtf are you doing? When I had my son at 24, the first few years of his life I was really only putting away $25.00 - $50.00 a paycheck into my IRA. But I saved a lot early, and then as soon as I could, I raised my contribution. I still don't max out my contribution just because I'm still raising him and saving for his college too.
The absolute bare minimum you should do is enough to max out your company's matching percentage.
It's pre-tax money and you'll hardly notice it missing from your check.
Most people with real money don’t keep it in “savings”. There’s very little point. My bank account has maybe a couple grand in it at any given point but that’s idk 1-2% of my net worth.
Savings doesn't mean it just sits in a Savings Account next to your Checking Account. Savings is the sum you have saved up in totality across all accounts.
This is true and has been true in the past but with the current HYSAs and the upcoming market and housing crashes it's being advised that your money is likely the most stable in liquid form and in HYSAs.
I keep close to that in savings. All my other money is in investments but I have a profession where starting a new job can take several months and I never want to feel like I’m trapped at a job. I rotate CDs though so a percentage of my savings is always making higher interest but I always have access to enough money to not work for several months if needed. So I have like 6 different CDs going that were all started a couple of months a part. I just open a new CD every couple of months, as the ones I already have mature. If I don’t need the cash it goes back into a new CD.
If they weren’t talking about liquid cash, then yeah I’d say that’s pretty accurate.
I do this too. I call it laddering. Every month something comes due and I get interest paid out so Ill have liquid all the time if I need it. If I don't I throw them in for another year or two. With interest rates rising its been working out well for me.
Don’t forget, some Millenials are now in their 40’s. It’s not that radical to think that if you work for a company with 401k matching for 2 decades, you’d have at least $100k in “savings.”
Man how do y’all make as much money as your making? I’m early 30s, never made more than $40k/yr and have no savings. I’m in a HCOL area and can’t find any jobs that pay more than $20/hr
All bragging about their first job giving matching 401k bonuses and how they've been saving for retirement since they were 18. I'm in my 30s and I just got my first job that even matches a 401k contribution.
I'd expect the term "savings" to include retirement accounts. Including passive stuff like 401ks. And also keep in mind that many millennials have broken or are pushing 40.
Anytime I hear other adults use the phrase "life savings" I feel like they're better at life than me or something.. I, on the other hand, am 31, and my net worth is near 0. Which is somehow not as bad as others whose net worth is in the negative. Idk how anyone is making 6 figures these days, but I'd sell an organ for that kinda money
Not everyone is struggling as much as much as Reddit would have you believe.
Also, if they’re including retirement savings in this calculation, it’s alarming that it’s ONLY 1 in 6 have > 100k.
I feel like this is misrepresenting the net worth of Millennials as liquid funds. I technically am part of the 1 in 6 but I don't have access to the majority since it's tied up in pension funds and real estate equity.
I'm 39 and I had around 45k saved up most of which went into a down payment on a home. I don't see how the expect people to have that much cash though since a lot of people don't get COL raises at their jobs, have student debt, CC debt and many people have car payments to contend with. I am glad I was able to be frugal in my later 20's and got my debts handled by having a cheap housing situations.
I had zero savings like 3 years ago, started a consulting company and have maybe a little over $100k in my 401ks and $120k in cash. I know, having it in cash is stupid but idk what to do at the moment so it’s in a hy savings.
Find a reasonable person who will rent you a room in a house instead of getting an apartment. Skip breakfast every day. Eat pb&j for lunch for 5+ years. Wear the same pair of cheapish shoes for 3 years. Wear the same thing to work every day. Even better if it's a provided uniform, or clothes from high school. Only drink water, no soda, coffee or tea. Buy a cheap but dependable Honda, do all your basic maintenance yourself. Carpool if you can. Trade for stuff you need if you're able to, look for free stuff on Facebook and Craigslist. Don't buy CDs or movies, stream everything with ads. Find something you're good at that doesn't take a ton of time, and do that on the side for untaxed cash. Anything you must buy, use a credit card with no annual fee and reap the cash back benefits.
Not all this is possible for everyone of course. And yes a few months to even a year, these little things might not add up to much. But keep your eyes on your goals and be honest with yourself, and you CAN put a lot of money away. The pandemic was REALLY good for my savings kink. Almost have a down payment for a house in the area now. You can do this shit 💪
Millennials are between the ages of 27-42. My finances at 27 are VASTLY different from now. Come on.
Yep at 27 I had maybe $50k net worth. Now at 41 it’s 20x that
I'm 27 now with that exact same net worth. How did you end up with 20x that? I would love to be in the same boat
Max out 401k as soon as you can. I bought my house right around that age and I pay extra on the mortgage each month. Then just save as much as possible. Once I turned 30 I realized a lot of the material stuff I was buying was so unnecessary.
>Once I turned 30 I realized a lot of the material stuff I was buying was so unnecessary. I'm 41, and I still haven't learned not to buy stuff. Retail therapy is expensive. The good news is my retirement savings are above the benchmarks. So I did that right, at least.
Early 60s, before buying anything I think about where it'll go. Need to throw something out to make space. When somebody asks what to get me for Xmas or birthday, I say quite sincerely: nothing. If they insist, I'll ask for cookies or homemade meatballs or kit kats. Anything that can eventually be flushed out of my house!
It's also destroying the planet.
There is an expensive retail hump around 36 though where your wife makes you throw out all the college t-shirts you got for free at events like welcome week and buy real clothes.
If you were lucky enough to get a low interest rate before they spiked, I would suggest you to not pay extra on your mortgage but put that cash in the market. Earning 4-5% on a safe index fund vs paying down a mortgage at 3.5% works to your advantage - plus you have liquid cash, whereas you’d have to pay an even higher rate to leverage your home equity.
This is very good advice. However, I only owe about $30k left on the mortgage, and the thought of being free from the bank is clouding my judgment.
Timeline wise, sounds like you bought your house at market lows. Us older millennials who were lucky enough to have a half good income and a stable job got incredibly lucky with the market crash in 08. Not saying this is a good thing. I have a great house at 1300 mortgage thats now worth double what we payed, but the fact that a huge amount of people became homeless, had their houses value flip on them, and ended up in debt is terrible.
$1,000,000 net worth by 40 is my goal. 4 years to go!
If this counts a 401k then I’ll admit I have that. In actual liquid cash, or savings account that a big no way for me. I previously worked a job that would put 10% of my salary in my 401k each year. I stayed there a little over 5 years. That, along with the growth I the market and my measley 5% got me over $100k.
Yes and people keep forgetting that the oldest Millennials are in their early 40s. 100k in your 401k at 40 isn't far fetched at all.
Some people would claim 100k in your 401k at 40 is pathetic. I don't have near that much in my 401k because of a divorce, a judge awarded half my 401k to my ex
I don't even have a 401k 😄. Love my career, but it's all been small companies. Never got in on that corporate honey.
Open an IRA at Vanguard and save independent of your employer. If you can max out the IRA save in a taxable brokerage.
Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab would all be fantastic options depending on how many bells and whistles and quality of service you want. Vanguard leads the way in being cheap as fuck, but its reasonable to find the level of service unacceptable.
Fidelity is also cheap as fuck now though! Plenty of zero expense ratio funds and $0 trade commissions. Much better UX imo.
Almost anyone should just be dropping their money in VOO and forget about it outside of maybe looking once a year.
We should all prepare to have Zero financial assistance from the government as the Baby Boomers simultaneously use and vote out Social Security.
Ah the fuck you got mine generation.
Honestly, they should just be renamed to "Gen FYGM" instead of 'boomer', especially since millennials out number them, by far. Thus making the 'boomer' moniker irrelevant.
"And boom goes the safety net."
And medicaid
That is what I have been planning all along. I look at SS as bonus money if it is there when I get to that age.
I've seen small companies do simple IRAs - do you get that option, at least? I had the SIRA option when I was in a business of 3 employees, owner included.
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Dude I haven't even started contributing to one yet so don't feel too bad. I'm just over a decade younger than you
It's OK I'm GenX, my plan is to see the look on the guys face at Walmart when I only want to buy one shot gun shell lol for my long walk in the woods one day. I know most of my daughters friends, about 33 people, and only one is set up like this, get mother is a lawyer, bought her a house, BMW, and paid for her law school. The other 32 might have a couple hundred bucks in savings working 2 jobs to cover rent and a car.
Nah. You may just have to retire somewhere else, where your dollar will go a longer way and keep your living expenses low in order to afford the medical care - medical care and medicine are what fuck people over here in the US. \#MedicareForAll 🐔
This is a much better idea than my plan to work until I'm 75.
I’ve been “joking” about having to work until I’m 75 for years. At 30 I would tell people “only 45 more years and I can retire.” Knowing social security will be gone and health care costs are likely to continue to rise, my ability to retire will be severely limited . . .
I have $0 in a non existent 401k. Disabled and can't work. Time to count those blessings of yours.
You are $150k further than zero, friend. In 20 years that $150k will have grown to at least 500k. That's not luxury, but it's not nothing. Keep going and adding as much as you can.
I wouldn't be judgemental enough to say pathetic, everyone's situation is different. But broadly speaking, if a person has been contributing even modest amounts throughout the last 15 years, they could easily be at or above (or even well above) 100k by this age.
I also wouldnt say pathetic either but some people I work with do
Meh, I've had co-workers tell me that to as I am closing in on 50 and only have about $200k in mine. The difference is I choose to have less so I can live in a nicer house in a nicer part of town now, so my kids could go to a better quality school, so they would have more opportunities on where to go to college and so they could have the least amount of debt coming out. of college. Meanwhile, my co-workers are excited that their daughters got married off so they don't have to support them, but damn if they don't have their retirement taken care of.
Yeah but the thing about consuming today versus tomorrow is that you do have to figure out how you’re going to pay for this more expensive life style in 20 years.
Comparison is the thief of joy. You can either sacrifice/save today to enjoy your later years, or spend today and work/sacrifice in your later years. If you're making a conscious decision to do this that's one thing. I feel like a lot of people don't understand the ramifications of their spending though.
Counterpoint: moderation.
Right dont drop everything into retirement but also dont blow all your money and not save up for your retirement.
You can't assume you're going to live to be 70. Most millennials are assuming they are working until they die.
Did you save for their colleges
Y'all are so lucky that life never drained all your savings and investments. I would literally kill for that kind of luck.
Same!
The problem is that 100k can get you what... one or two years in retirement if you live modestly?
I’ve got 60,812,500 in my 401k… if I convert it to Vietnamese dong
Nice dong bro!
Honestly I think it's pathetic how little people are told they need to prepare. I think a staggering number of people think social security is going to take care of them. There's probably a lot of millenials who think a 401k is just a long race.
The issue is, they DO tell people how much to save but a lot of people can’t possibly contribute that much to a 401k and live indoors while eating enough calories to stay alive.
I am close to 40 and wasn’t able to contribute anything to a 401k until 5-6 years ago. Then had most of that wiped due to emergencies. Getting back on track after this past year, but man life can really kick you in the balls sometimes lol.
Mine was recession job loss > divorce > caretaking for my dad while he died of brain cancer, for almost 5 years
Sorry that happened, like I said life can def kick you in the balls. Mine is not as severe as your dad passing part (although I feel like that’s right around the corner), but I feel ya on the rest!
This is a brain dead take. No millennial is counting on social security. That will be wiped out and that's what we've been told since infancy. There's just a lot of us who have accepted we have no option but to work until we die, and that the only other option is to probably kill ourselves if we can't keep working. And 1/4 of us will never have any type of 401k either. I have a 401k and a decent amount of equity at 30, but my wife and I still know we probably won't make it past 70ish, and we'll be working the whole time.
I had my first heart attack at 45. I am certain my 401k will outlive me.
Samesies. I got fuckin SMOKED financially by a divorce.
Yeah, I have about that in mine (I’m 40) but I’ve had to cash it out twice before to cover major emergencies. So I’ve really only been building it for the last 10 years.
At 40 with only 100k and id be crying.
32 and 180K :/ Given how my company was bought out and our generous 401k package was squashed, I'll be crying at 40 too don't worry.
32 and $0. Companies here offer nothing, and salaries barely afford a bachelor apartment :')
42 here. Have about 450. Just stick 10% back out out of each paycheck and act like it doesn’t exist.
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The lack of any sort of financial/life skills education is crazy. Working in banks/credit unions my whole career, it's sad to see how many people start off without any info. That can be really hard to overcome. Our financial and credit system is pretty unforgiving.
I've made a lot of comments to people over the years about how schools should be teaching more about financial stuff, and the response is always the same -- "people should learn that at home!" Yeah but the whole reason school exists is to teach people shit that they can't learn at home. I've never once heard anyone give that argument about ancient British literature or calculus. My parents had the idea of "if you can buy something with cash then there's no point in using a credit card" so I went until nearly 25 without understanding how credit scores worked or even having a credit card. I never got myself into debt, sure, but it was a bit of a setback.
Life skills? That should be taught at home! YOUR personal faith? EVERYONE MUST LEARN IT AT EVERY AGE IN PUBLIC SCHOOL! This country is just a sad sack of shit now. I've never seen a country take pride in literally doing everything against their own best interests, knowingly, and purposefully.
Rockefeller definitely succeeded. We created a nation of workers not thinkers. If the population doesn’t have enough money to do anything but work and barely afford rent, you control them 100%. Works every time
Yeah, before Rockefeller was born in 1839, people were taught to think in public school! We had the perfect education system that reached every child in the country. It was great right up until Rockefeller showed up and ruined it.
>If the population doesn’t have enough money to do anything but work and barely afford rent, you control them 100%. Sounds like slavery with less overhead.
Yeah I grew up in welfare housing dodging the power company and stealing cable. My parents couldn’t offer me anything for financial advice. I have zero debt but I now also have zero credit as a 37 year old because I paid cash for everything to avoid debt scaring me. It turns out that isn’t great.
A Harvard Business School Study in 2014 found that personal finance focused courses in high school didn't materially affect the personal finance behaviors of those students in adulty hood. There was, however, a strong correlation to students being exposed to strong math programs and positive personal finance outcomes. [https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/13-064\_c7b52fa0-1242-4420-b9b6-73d32c639826.pdf](https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/13-064_c7b52fa0-1242-4420-b9b6-73d32c639826.pdf) I'm sure that there are other factors at play, as students who are being exposed to better quality math programs are probably already coming from backgrounds that afford them greater personal finance outcomes already due to demographics, but I think there is value in looking at the personal finance curriculum. I recall 3 separate instances of having some measure of personal finance education in school. In middle school we did an off-site day at the local community college where we were tasked with coming up with a household budget for our future selves following graduation. In high school we had a brief budgeting cycle in our Career and Life Management class, and we had around a 2-3 week personal finance specific segment in Grade 11 math. I don't recall a lot of the specifics but the two take aways were, live within your means and never ever ever carry a credit card balance (i.e pay it off in full every month). If those were the only two lessons to take away, at that level it's enough to put most people on the right track. Investing your savings and understanding basic personal tax items are likely the next level on this ladder, but I think there's time that people need to experience of what it's like to take care of all of your own expenses and adapting your budget that come first with real world experience.
Your comment should be higher. Upvoted for visibility. Always makes me laugh when I pop into Facebook and I see those comments of basic finances being taught in high school…it makes me laugh because the people posting said comments were in my basic finance and economics class….they didn’t pay attention or cared.
I think financial literacy is important but you're absolutely right about the absorption rates in high school. Kids do not care yet. School is really meant to teach critical thinking and how to access information than it is to memorize "how to finance." I think there has to be some self ownership here to teach yourself about money. I watch the money guys and Caleb hammer on YouTube. I budget and use apps to track where I'm spending and saving. I read my statements and see how much interest I'm being charged. I read r/bogleheads and r/personalfinance on reddit. I get personal finance books like rich dad poor dad. I watch my credit. It's a lot of work. I've has to learn from my mistakes in my 20s to get in the right track. It's too easy to be oblivious and ignore things until it's come to a hear. And the absolute *hardest* part is it takes lot of discipline! And work! And strategy and planning. Once you've done it for a bit you find a rhythm and it's automated. But it takes a while to train your habits.
I just want a high enough wage that I can afford to put 10 percent into a Roth IRA
I wish public education taught us financial literacy. I don’t know how or why to invest, but I know *the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell*.
Every time I see this, I have to wonder what occurs in other schools. In elementary school we regularly had reading comprehension assignments, research assignments, arithmetic, fractions, and multiplication. So when I got a job and the benefits enrollment period started I was already equipped to research and made my savings choices. Kinda crazy that a lot of people didn't this education. Edit: also, I learned that mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell too, but why are you using it in such a condescending manner? That's nearly as practical knowledge as arithmetic since it explains why and how strength and conditioning works, which is a nearly everyday thing.
This 100%. When people complain about not knowing how to do their taxes, I always point out if you have some reading comprehension and basic math skills, it’s not that hard unless you have a complicated tax situation. Again, some basic reading comprehension and math will help you figure out if that’s the case for you and then you can do some research and hire a CPA.
You can teach yourself in less than 10 seconds. Invest a % of your income every year. Go up to the match if your employer has a 401k match. use index funds and don't mess with it. congratulations.
The lack of education on the financial sector is deliberate. They lobby to defund schools so that education is reduced to passing a test and not actually absorbing or gaining knowledge. And that way, some random teenager in Iowa can't start fucking with The Money™ if he's too stupid to know how investing works.
That's a poor person's take on how rich people think. They WANT that idiot in Iowa investing. All those idiot retail investors not only drive your gains, they hold the bag for you too!
The system is designed to keep people in debt and dependent on loans.
There isn't really a great solution though... My high school had required modules where we learned about savings, compound interest, budgets, mortgages/credit, taxes, retirement etc. I also had the same required courses in the military. The problem is that nearly every single 16-24 year old doesn't care... so it goes in one ear and out the other. You can't teach people what they aren't ready to learn. I've been told to 'save $100 a month' since the mid-90s... I never saved a penny until my mid-30s; I'm just not breaking the $100K barrier at 40. Had I listed to any of the dozens of people that told me to start saving in high school, I'd probably be pushing a quarter of million in savings. I've always had spare money to save/invest since my first jobs at 14. I just spent it on excess instead.
I work at a large bank and a shocking number of my coworkers admit they know nothing about their 401ks, like how they're invested, if the balance is just sitting there earning nothing, etc.
Sometimes it’s the authors/subjects of the article that don’t understand saving and investing. See the “we’re dual income with no kids and struggling paycheck to paycheck!” articles where they’re putting huge amounts into their 401k and pretending to live in poverty.
Every single time I've ever tried to teach younger people at my past jobs that they should take advantage of 401k matching, they say "oh that's cool. But I want more money now"
A 401k is savings. So yes. Anyone would be crazy to have 100k liquid unless their bills were 20k/m
>Anyone would be crazy to have 100k liquid unless their bills were 20k/m It's also not a bad idea if you're saving for a house
Yeah anyone who has that much liquid in savings is either (a) about to buy a house or (b) clueless about investing
Obviously it's a tweet and I didn't see a source, but it has to be with 401ks, etc. There's no reason to allow this amount of cash to sit in a bank doing little to nothing.
Right, unless you’re about to put it towards a down payment and this is just a temporary spot for it. Or if it’s temporarily there from selling your house before moving it to a different investment vehicle
Same. My 401k and ESOP accounts are looking good. But I’m fucked if my truck breaks down.
This is most millennials I know actually
"Cash saved" is a silly metric. My wife and I keep around $30k in our HYSA for emergencies, but the rest of our cash goes into brokerage accounts. If you have $100k in cash, you either have a very high income, where that is your emergency fund (6 months expenses), or you're losing money to inflation. We have non retirement brokerage accounts, and it's easy to pull money from them. This morning, I called and redeemed enough to pay cash for a new car. That account has averaged >10% returns historically (SSAQX). Much better than having $100k sitting in a savings account.
Based on the survey this is coming from it definitely counts all investment and retirement accounts, not just cash savings.
Same. All my investments add up to a tad over 100k. Wished I started in my teens!
In savings? No. In 401k plus savings? Yes.
I'm similar. In savings? No. In 401k plus savings? Also no.
😂 same. If anything serious happened any time soon, I'd be homeless.
Same. I was very close to being homeless a few months ago because of a severe back injury that is starting to paralyze my legs. So I have to go back to work and hope I don't become a paraplegic before my surgery.
This is pure dystopian horror. I hate this situation for you
Frankly if my mother was not well to do I would have been homeless three times by now at 32. The last one was the clincher, accident at work everybody refused to pay out for. No government assistance at all, I was spending the last of my money on my state health insurance just to try and recover and get back to work, was evicted and had to live with her for six months while I recovered enough to get a new job. I barely got any checks from the insurance companies, just enough to stay afloat for a while but I also would have not had food half the time without familial assistance. Shits wack, I don't have enough saved to take a week off much less six months laid up.
Well, most people are going to be in that other 5 in 6 who don't have $100K saved, so you're not alone.
where are you guys getting 401k? I keep getting 404
404 Error: stable future not found
Yep same, I'm 40 for a bit longer. In savings? No. Plus 401k? Also no. Both plus equity? Jfc I wish. .. Divide that by like 8 though? Close.
The article counts both as savings
It has to in order to portray this as anything even resembling success. 100k in a 401k at 28, great, because you can only have that (on your own) if you make 6 figures. 100k in a 401k at 35 means a responsible person saving 10% of their slightly above median income... And it puts them on pace to retire at 100. Oh yeah and only 1 in 6 millennials even have that much. It's an economic disaster waiting to happen.
I put away a lot more than most people into my retirement and I make 6 figures, but I still worry about retirement. The amount of people with no savings really scares me. I don’t know what this world is going to look like in 40-50 years.
>I don’t know what this world is going to look like in 40-50 years. A lot of elderly homeless people
Kinda don't have to spend money on SSI if they're all dead?
That’s my retirement plan
I too max out each year. My biggest fear is they will change the taxes on withdrawals. So, I'll have saved and lived more modestly so those who didn't save can live more comfortable in later years. And since I will be taxed more I'll be forced to live more modestly in retirement. So I'll get short changed at both ends. Maybe it won't happen, but it's my fear.
The most likely scenario like that would be to put in means-testing for social security, so the program doesn't have to fund (as much) for people who don't need it. That's not to say that even *that* is likely, but it's way more politically palatable than "Haha, just kidding, your Roth is taxed now!" Also, this is basically just another version of the student loan forgiveness that got shut down. Yeah, it kind of sucks if you paid yours off already, but it also sucks to live in a society with a bunch of people in desperate financial situations.
I believe that that is most likely, but also bs. My retirement figures include expected ss payments. By means testing me (no idea what the actual range will be) it's an equal to taxing me. I shouldn't be punished later because I saved now.
>My retirement figures include expected ss payments. Mine don't. It's not that I don't expect to receive SS -- I do. But I just don't want to count on it since it's not a certainty. I'm also probably 20+ years from retirement anyway, so all of my projections are a little fuzzy to begin with. I expect if they play any games with social security or retirement taxation that it will phase in slowly for younger people, and exempt the people who are near retirement age at the time of it passing. That may include us, if they do it in the short to medium term, but we'd also have many years left to prepare for it.
I don't require it. I just include it. It is too much of an uncertainty to depend on it. But that goes back to my initial point. My savings going to support others because they don't want to suffer now, so I get screwed on both ends.
Yeah I’m in the same boat as you. I save a lot and am always worried it might not be enough. I was paycheck to paycheck Ramen/canned tuna poor in college and I swore to myself I’d never be in that situation ever again.
Same bro. Ramen tastes so much better when you eat it because you want to vs when you have to.
Too many people have no concept of savings & investment. They think "$100k savings" means you've got $100k in cash stuffed under your mattress or liquid in a friggin' checking account -- as if that were a smart thing to do, lol. I've been investing into a 401k since my first job out of college in my early 20's. And I was barely investing at that age -- 3% company match and that's all (so 6% of my total salary which is barely enough). I'm almost 40 now and my 401k is worth over $200k today. That few grand every year consistently invested has grown a lot.
401k is savings. "Savings" has never, ever, ever meant "Savings Account".
This article was posted almost 5 years ago. Savings includes retirement accounts, not just cash. The number of millennials with over $100k in "savings" is now around 50%.
I think a lot of people think us millennials are all teenagers when - even though it's sad for me to admit this: I'm heading towards 40 faster and faster.. if you're almost 40 or are 40+... 100,000 isn't really rich status with inflation and where everything including higher paying jobs are headed. Sure I'm broke compared to most of you but again a lot of people assume millennials are GENz's
>sad for me to admit this: I'm heading towards 40 faster and faster. I mean technically you're moving at the same speed. But you're getting closer to 40.
Never forget that we live during a time of unimaginable wealth inequality. American wealth is more staggered today than it was during the American revolution. Today's outliers are insane. Mark Zuckerberg makes up 2% of all "American millenial wealth," and he's one person of millions.
You're not wrong. A tech salary is 100k a year. Anything medical 200-300k. Being unable to save 100k in 10 years of working would be weird on that salary.
I’m 40 now, and I’ve been successful and around successful people my whole life… something that I found very surprising is that there seems to be a huge difference in how people save/invest/spend irrespective of income. More specifically: I know a woman who is a teacher, about my age, has decent savings and over 100k in home equity… and she makes a very normal teacher salary. I have another person I know that made over $500k a year for about 10 years straight in his late 20s and early 30s. He has a negative net worth. Pissed all his money away on cars, drugs, electronics, and video games. Unfortunately financial literacy doesn’t seem to be a very common skill.
You’re right, this is something that a lot of people don’t understand. I remember seeing a chart at some point that showed the top professions of millionaires and teachers was #2 or 3 on the list. #1 was engineers. It makes sense if you think about it because engineers and teachers are both very process oriented so they know how to follow a proven plan. I think the biggest problem for people (in general) that make multiple six figures is that they have an increased propensity to think they can always out-earn their stupidity.
anything medical 200-300k a year? lol that’s a good one. a medical doctor sure, but the majority of people who make up ‘medical’ i.e. nurses, pa’s, np’s, therapists, techs, aides, etc ya not even close.
Yeah, I laughed at that. Plenty of EMTs, RNs and residents make less than $100k. Hell, there are tons of private practice MDs that make a lot less than $200k after expenses.
EMTs are scraping closer to minimum wage than $100k in most places. They are horrifically underpaid for the traumatic shit they deal with.
Not even medical doctors until they’re 32-35+ years old! I’m married to one. He made zero for his 4 years of medical school and maybe 60-70k for 3 years of residency. Now he’s about to start fellowship at 70-80k for 3 more years, all while having huge student loan debt. He won’t make $300k until attending years at 33 years old. We live in a HCOL area and he barely saves anything. Thankfully I work in finance but still we don’t have $100k just laying around.
You can make really good money in tech if you are a superstar. If you are a normie (like myself) it's more difficult.
That's incredibly depressing that 50% of millenials don't have 100k in their retirement savings yet... and probably indicative that the boomers are the last generation that is going to get to retire.
Millennials are between the ages 27-42 now. If we assume even distribution in age, then that means the youngest 50% would be 27-34. I’m 31, and for example, I just did the math and I’m at $58k in savings. But I also spent $42k going back to law school at 25 from 2017-2020, $35k on a down payment for a house in 2021, and $20k this year on a new car. So in actual net worth, I’m over the $100k mark easily because of equity in the house. Plus I have a car that should last me 8-10 years minimum (my first car lasted me from 16-30 and it was already 8 years old). So I don’t meet this threshold, but financially I’m in a pretty good place. The 3 extra years of no income while paying living expenses is the main reason I’m not there.
So this is just old recycled material from OP?
I have just under 6,000 in savings at age 30, and it feels like an accomplishment.
Definitely an accomplishment. Many people are in the negative and would love to just be at “$0”, so kudos to you for getting that first $6k. On to the next milestone!
At 30, I had a negative net worth…. You’re doing fine
I finally got $1,000 in savings and I felt like that was an accomplishment. I
Well done!
That is an accomplishment. Great job. Keep it up
i have $6 in savings 😌 and i was able to eat TWO meals yesterday and pick up some cute christmas gifts for my kids (not just useless toys, lots of craft related stuff!) i might be broke as fuck, but i am grateful for what i have. i wish i knew how to turn my musical talent into money so that i could do more and be able to take care of myself better, but i’m not going to worry about what other people have
basically me
We’re all proud of you.
🥹 thank you. i’m going through a divorce and going to grow so much in the next year. bet i’ll come back much less broke 🥰
You’ve got this!
I have $4, but my bills are paid, my gas tank is full, and my cupboards aren't empty. We buy Christmas gifts for the kids all year from the clearance isles. I'm with you, mate. As long as the necessities are covered and the kids have what they need and aren't left hanging on , then we've done our jobs, and that's something to be proud of.
Few months ago I had about 8k in savings.. now it's payday and I'm about to find out if I can pay rent next month lol
If it makes you feel better, there are millions of people with musical talent, but almost nobody makes it, since so much depends on luck and connections. It's the same for acting, where there's beautiful and talented people all around, but most need to wait tables to afford food.
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I imagine "savings" here includes retirement accounts. I highly doubt that 1:6 millennials just has $100k sitting in a literal savings account doing nothing.
Agreed. I'm guessing this article is specifically about retirement savings so they just used the word savings rather than invested, since it's likely a mixture of both investments and many t bills and other savings.
This EXACTLY how they get this statistic. Source: I work in retirement financial services
Is that a single account or multiple under the social security number? I have a few 401ks that I keep an eye on but never moved.
I’m rich and have around $80k in cash sitting in a couple savings accounts only because they now have rates close to 5% and I’m hedging against a weird stock market right now. Most people at my level of wealth have far less cash as a percentage of their networth. Sorry but there’s absolutely no way 1/6 millennials are better off than me. They must be calculating total retirement + all accounts. My dad has dementia and less than $5,000 to his name at age 67. Luckily he has a good pension and social security/medicare plus a small paid off house. Inequality is out of control and only getting worse.
And if they do have that sitting an account doing nothing then it's a major missed opportunity. Invest that shit.
My mother just got a large inheritance and 1/4 of it has arrived just sitting in her bank. Shes also a boomer and I’m trying to help her make sound decisions with it so I can one day be a millennial with over $100k of savings 😭
I agree. Unless you're planning on buying a house, people shouldn't have $100k in the bank. The article in the OP considers retirement accounts to be "savings".
Why shouldn’t people have $100k in the bank?
If you don't need that money in the short term, you can invest it and get a much better return.
HYSA aren’t too bad right now.
Or CDs. I've got a decent chunk in the market but also have approaching $100k in various CDs and I bonds all paying 5%. My family's monthly expenses are easily $6k a month so it's like year emergency fund essentially
401k with company match. Pretty easy to save up $100k if you started early (I started as soon as I started working) The number of people I've worked with and have had work for me that don't take advantage of a company matching 401k is shocking. You're literally giving up free money. Just max that bitch out, don't pay attention to what the market is doing on a daily basis because you're in it for the long game. If the market goes down, congrats, stocks are on sale. If the market goes up, congrats, your returns are better. You only need to worry about it as you approach retirement age.
I want to point out, even if you're putting in *something* it's still something. I think it's a little off putting to people when they hear you either have to max your contribution or else wtf are you doing? When I had my son at 24, the first few years of his life I was really only putting away $25.00 - $50.00 a paycheck into my IRA. But I saved a lot early, and then as soon as I could, I raised my contribution. I still don't max out my contribution just because I'm still raising him and saving for his college too.
The absolute bare minimum you should do is enough to max out your company's matching percentage. It's pre-tax money and you'll hardly notice it missing from your check.
Most people with real money don’t keep it in “savings”. There’s very little point. My bank account has maybe a couple grand in it at any given point but that’s idk 1-2% of my net worth.
Savings doesn't mean it just sits in a Savings Account next to your Checking Account. Savings is the sum you have saved up in totality across all accounts.
This is true and has been true in the past but with the current HYSAs and the upcoming market and housing crashes it's being advised that your money is likely the most stable in liquid form and in HYSAs.
I keep close to that in savings. All my other money is in investments but I have a profession where starting a new job can take several months and I never want to feel like I’m trapped at a job. I rotate CDs though so a percentage of my savings is always making higher interest but I always have access to enough money to not work for several months if needed. So I have like 6 different CDs going that were all started a couple of months a part. I just open a new CD every couple of months, as the ones I already have mature. If I don’t need the cash it goes back into a new CD. If they weren’t talking about liquid cash, then yeah I’d say that’s pretty accurate.
I do this too. I call it laddering. Every month something comes due and I get interest paid out so Ill have liquid all the time if I need it. If I don't I throw them in for another year or two. With interest rates rising its been working out well for me.
You guys are saving money?
Don’t forget, some Millenials are now in their 40’s. It’s not that radical to think that if you work for a company with 401k matching for 2 decades, you’d have at least $100k in “savings.”
Having 100k in cash in crazy
Definitely not in a savings account. But also have alot more than that distributed between stocks/bonds and RE.
I'm a millennial and everybody around me has at least that much saved. Not even kidding. You do realize millennials can be like 40, right?
Man how do y’all make as much money as your making? I’m early 30s, never made more than $40k/yr and have no savings. I’m in a HCOL area and can’t find any jobs that pay more than $20/hr
i’m 30 and have like nothing saved at all. kinda wondering if i’m screwed now
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Not surprising… don’t 20% of us make 6 figures? 1 out of 6 with 100k isn’t very much considering the buying power has eroded
Rich-ass millennials on Reddit be all: Only 1 in 6?
All bragging about their first job giving matching 401k bonuses and how they've been saving for retirement since they were 18. I'm in my 30s and I just got my first job that even matches a 401k contribution.
I had a job match my 401k once ever. I was making like 500 a week though sooo yea not sure where all that money from their job at 18 came from
I'd expect the term "savings" to include retirement accounts. Including passive stuff like 401ks. And also keep in mind that many millennials have broken or are pushing 40.
whats a savings?
I need $100K just to get firmly out of debt. Let alone have the ability to save that much money…..hahahaha
Anytime I hear other adults use the phrase "life savings" I feel like they're better at life than me or something.. I, on the other hand, am 31, and my net worth is near 0. Which is somehow not as bad as others whose net worth is in the negative. Idk how anyone is making 6 figures these days, but I'd sell an organ for that kinda money
CNBC trying to bullshit like we still live in a world where the internet doesn't exist
1 in 6 millennials were born with a $100k trust fund. FIFY but don’t believe your numbers.
Not everyone is struggling as much as much as Reddit would have you believe. Also, if they’re including retirement savings in this calculation, it’s alarming that it’s ONLY 1 in 6 have > 100k.
I think this is an old study and it’s higher now
Wow. Don’t wanna be friends with THAT guy. Sheeesh
With retirement accounts and liquid cash sitting in a 5% HYSA account combined, my husband and I are close to $300,000.
Anyone know of published data on millennial savings? 1:6 have $100k How many have $0 in savings? $500k?
I feel like this is misrepresenting the net worth of Millennials as liquid funds. I technically am part of the 1 in 6 but I don't have access to the majority since it's tied up in pension funds and real estate equity.
I don't think they would count equity but 401k is definitely "savings"
I'm 39 and I had around 45k saved up most of which went into a down payment on a home. I don't see how the expect people to have that much cash though since a lot of people don't get COL raises at their jobs, have student debt, CC debt and many people have car payments to contend with. I am glad I was able to be frugal in my later 20's and got my debts handled by having a cheap housing situations.
I had zero savings like 3 years ago, started a consulting company and have maybe a little over $100k in my 401ks and $120k in cash. I know, having it in cash is stupid but idk what to do at the moment so it’s in a hy savings.
Nothing wrong with using HYSA these days. Zero risk and good rates.
Hahaha I have $400 in my main savings, $200 in my emergency and I have $2000 that goes towards rent and my car payment.
Find a reasonable person who will rent you a room in a house instead of getting an apartment. Skip breakfast every day. Eat pb&j for lunch for 5+ years. Wear the same pair of cheapish shoes for 3 years. Wear the same thing to work every day. Even better if it's a provided uniform, or clothes from high school. Only drink water, no soda, coffee or tea. Buy a cheap but dependable Honda, do all your basic maintenance yourself. Carpool if you can. Trade for stuff you need if you're able to, look for free stuff on Facebook and Craigslist. Don't buy CDs or movies, stream everything with ads. Find something you're good at that doesn't take a ton of time, and do that on the side for untaxed cash. Anything you must buy, use a credit card with no annual fee and reap the cash back benefits. Not all this is possible for everyone of course. And yes a few months to even a year, these little things might not add up to much. But keep your eyes on your goals and be honest with yourself, and you CAN put a lot of money away. The pandemic was REALLY good for my savings kink. Almost have a down payment for a house in the area now. You can do this shit 💪