Millennials Are Saving for the Future, if They Can Afford To

To Emily and those with similar like-minded parents/advisers: ask them to google "why your house is a terrible investment" and read the blog post by jlcollinsnh that appears at the top of the search results. Houses are great at fulfilling many needs, but are not so good at growing your net worth. Conventional wisdom is wrong again. It's well-written and so true!

My advice to all Millenials: start saving NOW to harness the power of compound interest! Google "how compound interest affects retirement funds". You'll see an example where if someone invests in a total stock market index fund from age 25-35 and then STOPS investing new money, they will have more money at age 65 than someone who waits until age 35 to start and keeps investing the same amount until age 65. Yes, the early bird who only invest for 10 years ends up with more than the procrastinator who invests for 30 years. Be the early bird, start now! I was given this advice when I was still in high school - following it allowed my wife and I to retire in our early 40s, at which point we started volunteering, traveling, and doing things we loved instead of doing things for money. Join us.

No blue collar workers, no service workers, no nurses, no Uber drivers, and no Amazon warehouse workers. What a great representation of our generation. The journalist should have looked beyond his friends from college, and investigated what it is really like for millennials in the current economy. If the author thinks that his friends with well paying professional jobs are struggling, he should really talk to those of us who are working at or near poverty wages, which are all that is available for the large amount of people in their 20s, especially in economically depressed areas. We can't afford to move, so we are locked out of the opportunities that living in an urban area afford. We have no benefits, little recourse, and even less hope. The fact that most families couldn't cover a $500 emergency is thrown around frequently, but I know most of the people I know who are in their 20s couldn't even cover an emergency of $250. "Even when you’re dirt poor, just completely broke, still at least throw a dollar into your savings account" really says all you need to know about the mentality here. If you have a dollar to save, in a bank account that you can maintain the minimum amount in to keep open, you aren't dirt poor. I would love to see Kirk meet someone his age that's actually dirt poor, living check to check, with a child or two to feed. Maybe then he would wake up to how well he has it.

So many of the 25-35 year Olds I see do not want to move for a decent job,sometimes that is what you have to do.

Have the millennials looked around at work and seem any new hires of older people? Probably not. Good idea to save for an early retirement, they probably won't be able to get hired anywhere after the age of 50. Or, they could help and help making the change to end age discrimination.

Ed Watters, Gen Xers were always said to be the first gen not expected to do as well as their parents. So funny now to hear you saying that about millennials. Also, gen-xers struggled mightily with massive student loan debt. It started with us. I still have some $23,000 to pay off my masters that I earned 17 years ago, and over the years I made some really big lump sum payments, and have never deferred or missed a payment. So hopefully this gives you a different perspective on what are really firsts for the millennial generation.

How could you publish anything on this topic without speaking to a millennial who is freelancing or working in the “gig economy”? One of the interview subjects even mentioned this type of work, and you’re... journalists.

I'm trying to do the best I can. I worked 2-3 jobs out of undergrad, even while I was still in grad school to get job experience and immediately start paying down my student debt. I got a Masters degree and have really only a drop-in-the-bucket as far as student loans go. The 2-3 job grind gave way to a white-collar 9-5 after about a year and a half. I immediately started investing in my 403(b) (It's a large nonprofit) at the behest of my uncle, an accountant, who told me to invest early so that I would learn to live without that money in my paycheck. I've managed to send myself to Europe and move out of my parents house. Some months I put money into a savings account, some months I can't, but I try not to touch the savings account so it grows a little every month. The biggest problem I can say I (and most of my friends) face is student loan debt. When I think of the things I could do with that extra $400 - $1,000 some people are paying a month, it blows my mind.

None of the millennials talked about getting a 2nd job to save money. If you can't save enough on your first job, get another and save.

We Xers saved and scrimped and paid student loans for 20+ years--- and watched the 3 economic meltdowns we have endured in out adult lives drain our savings again and again. Some ar e lucky enough to have benefits and a consistent check, but most o fun are freelance (or 'permanence') these days....so please bear in mind that for many of is, 'retirement' will probably mean working until the lunch before our funeral. At least that's what we have been trained ot expect at this point. Maybe Millennials will help bring about change. Maybe they can reverse the Boomer greed that left us bereft of so much.

Anecdotal, but this millennial -- like most of my friends who earn enough to save -- is a very risk averse investor. I majored in economics, and so I know the conventional financial advice on building an aggressive portfolio in your youth and decreasing risk as you age. But stability is such a rare thing for people my age: we're stuck with temp and contract jobs, we have to relocate repeatedly to climb the ladder (or even just to stay employed), and we're renters subject to the whims of our landlords. Investing is one of the few aspects of our lives where we actually can choose to minimize risk. For me, that meant buying a house and building a safe portfolio of bonds and low-risk index funds. My savings will never make me rich, but for me 'success' doesn't mean cashing in a huge 401k to buy a condo on the beach. It means that I won't have to uproot my family and move to a new city when my job gets downsized or my contract runs out.

Save money as best you can, but pick one or two things to enjoy. I make my coffee at home and brown bag lunch most days, rarely buy clothing or shoes that are not on the sale rack, and drive an 11 year old car. Vacation is a different story. Cycling in Croatia, safari and wine tasting in South Africa, music and food tour in Ireland, woodworking school in Maine, Galapagos, Machu Picchu? Sign me up. Pricey ingredients at the grocery store and good wine -- with the occasional indulgent bottle are on my acceptable list as well, as is eating out with friends. Food from a mediocre restaurant when I can cook better myself for the same money? No thank you. I am fortunate to work in a field that I enjoy and I got lucky in the housing market. I have maxed out my 401K for a number of years. I looked away as the market tanked a few times since I started investing towards retirement in the mid-90s. I stopped opening my statements and put them straight into the shredder. I still had at least 20 years to retirement. The change over three months was irrelevant. Save to be able to be able to make choices in the future, but you have to enjoy today as well.

Why are there no non professionals such as janitors or laborers or restaurant staff represented? To be fair, many millennial a earn minimum to above minimum wage in semi skilled positions.

The millennial interviewed here are all gainfully employed - that's a far cry from what most millennials are experiencing. Their unemployment rate is almost four times the national average; many still live at home; wage stagnation and student loan debt is crushing them - in short, they're the first generation in memory that cannot reasonably expect themselves to do better than their parents, economically. The Times likes to portray an economy that is healthy and prosperous. Apparently, it makes their upscale target demographic feel good, but it could not be further from the truth.

"“Don’t waste your money paying your landlord’s mortgage.” A classic error. A mortgage is just renting money from the bank; there are lots of irrecoverable costs involved in home owner ship. Renting isn't any more a "waste" of money than homeownership. You should simply make a calculation about what will cost less in the long term.

Retire at 60 with enough to make it to 80?! Get real folks. With today’s medicine, not the future’s, if you live to 65 you have a 50% chance of living until your mid 80s! YEP! Then where do you go? Out on the streets? In a shelter? And with tomorrow’s medicine make that 50% chance of mid 90s. Right now many formerly quite well to do or being put out of their retirement, assisted living, or nursing homes because social security or Medicaid is not enough money.

Gen X words of wisdom: ignore what "they" say about your generation. Spend less than you make, save the balance, stick w low cost index funds, don't get fancy, buy & hold.

I'm a bit upset there's no mention of blue collar millenials. There are many blue collar jobs that offer great benefits and decent pay without the added burden I'd student debt. Since NYT didn't have a take, I'll give you mine. I'm 27 and I work as an Assembler at Omax Corporation in Kent, WA. My job pays less than average in manufacturing but healthcare is completely free and there are no caps on raises. Maybe its because I'm young or a personality perk but i don't see "retiring" as something so desirable. My idea of retiring is having my own workshop to pursue my interests in. That being said I currently support my mother (boomer generation) because of the lack of financial literacy she had but it is common for most immigrant parents. She gets $600 from SS and whatever is leftover i take on. Even with those financial disadvantages I still manage to contribute 15% to ny 401k and maybe the odd $100 or $200 a month into savings. I have a Robinhood account with a modest amount of money that i "play" with. Most of the guys my age at my job are all somewhat financially literate. All of us openly discuss our 401k arrangements and chat about how to better invest or prepare for our future. And were talking about a ragtag group of bluecollar workers. My future plans for retirement will be to increase my 401k to 20% on my next raise and try to save a bit more. Any suggestions?

Retirees and Millenials/Generaton Z have one thing in common--ageism by the entire country who forgets they were once young, but blocks out that they will soon be geriatric--ain't ageism grand? More division--even if you hate math.

One of the best things I did shortly after graduating from college with a liberal arts degree myself was to take a personal finance class through my local board of education extension courses. I think I paid $20 for that class and it was well worth it. The best savings advice is to start early and don't touch the money ever. Even when I was making poverty wages in social services, I put $50 every pay period into an IRA (I had no access to savings vehicles at work). The second best savings advice is to pick your partner carefully, pick someone who shares your money goals although you may have different strengths and habits. In my relationship, I'm the spendthrift but my husband sucks at paying bills, we work together to keep each other on the straight and narrow. When we got married we worked really hard to kill our unsecured debt and we also cut up the credit cards and have only spent current money since then. We work together to create an annual spending plan and annual savings goals. We save up for things like travel and new furniture, so when its time to take our big annual vacation we pay for it in cash.

Scrimp and save all you want. If you're lucky it will help a lot. If not so much, you will last a few years before that too peters out. Better to take/make that advantage of your luck if it come along. For over 1/2 of you/us it wont. That is what Soc. Sec. was supposed to do. A supplement to help keep poverty at bay when we are in the last stages of life. Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation’s history. Before it was signed into law, nearly half of senior citizens lived in poverty. Today, the elderly poverty rate is 10 percent. Although still much too high, that’s a dramatic improvement. Over half of workers between the ages of 55-64 have no retirement savings. More than a third of senior citizens depend on Social Security for virtually all of their income. One out of every five senior citizens is trying to scrape by on an average income of just $8,300 a year. Yes Millennials, save. But remember that life also rolls the dice. We MUST raise the Soc. Sec. cap above the current limit of $118,500.

Very sensible and practical advice, but no one talks about the most valuable asset you can invest in: yourself. Do what's required to succeed in a job that pays enough and you don't hate. If that means sometimes eating take-out, or hiring someone to clean for you instead of saving those dollars, it will pay off a lot more in the end. This changes with age, but in your twenties, make sure you're on a good path to earning what you want to live the life you want. Also: marriage really helps, as you each have someone to fallback on when the going gets tough on issues big and little. (This from a borderline boomer/Xer in a happy job, not all too far from a very comfortable retirement.)

if I understand Travis is comment at the very end of the article, he seems to be saying that he resents that older Generations had pensions and Millennials don't. I'm a Generation X ER and I had a pension for the first year or two of my career it topped out at $5,000 and that was the end of it. Pensions just went away. So my generation hasn't had them either. And I've had to save for retirement. So Millennials are not the first generation in this situation. The fact is the pension systems went away because they failed. Companies didn't find them properly and a lot of them went broke leaving retirees with broken promises and none of the benefits that they expected to retire on. Yes it would be nice to have someone else funding your retirement, but it's unreliable. It's a burden to do it yourself but at least you can depend on it. It's your money. You saved it. It'll be there.

An unusual cross-section. A brand consultant, a technical services analyst, a program associate (fancy phrasing for program manager), a career adviser, and other white-collar types. You left out the blue-collar, non-professionals, which remain in large numbers among millennials, and whom actually need the attention.

Perhaps the biggest saboteur of retirement is the chronic baggage of student loans. Kids must be coached in high school about the downsides of accumulating upwards of six figures of college loan debt, especially for non-STEM majors that are unlikely to provide a return on investment... ever. Huge student debt has created a generation of chronic debtors who are perennially in a state of robbing Peter to pay Paul and living on credit cards just to maintain a semblance of normalcy.

Live below your means as much as possible when you’re young and can stand it. If you’re employed in the US, there’s wiggle room to save. That may mean eating beans and rice more than you like, etc. eventually those mild “hardships” will pay back when you’re older and have less flexibility (for example family and job requirements).

28 here - I put 15% into my work's 401k and get a 6% match. I could do much better, but I am finishing a second degree in the evenings that I'm paying fully out of pocket to the tune of $800/month. I still have about $10k in student loans from my first degree though. I rent a cheap 1 bedroom in what's barely nicer than what I was renting in college, but the fellow tenants are quiet, the property management company is responsive, and the on-site laundry is cheap. I've been resisting the urge to get a new car, but instead continue driving my paid off car. Once I'm done paying tuition, I fully intend on maxing out my Roth IRA and then putting the rest towards my remaining student loans to get rid of those. Perhaps I'll be debt free by 30 and putting 20-25% of my income per year into retirement savings.

Emily, your mom is partially right about houses. Here's how people can make money on houses when they aren't appreciating like crazy. Buy something you can afford. Buy something that is a little tired. Work on it gradually over time. Live in it. Make it your own. Pay more each month than the supposed payment, so that you actually have equity in it. As for retiring, that doesn't need to mean moving to Boca and sitting in a condo. It means having a dream for something more than being captive to being in the work force. At the beginning of every career, most people's hopes are high. As we get older, we often see a wider world. The saddest thing you have said is that you have never taken a vacation. Do it this year and next and every year. Only in US is not taking a vacation considered a virtue. Baltimore is not the beginning and the end. See the world. It can be done without spending a huge amount of money.

Travis, I'm no millennial. I'm 65. When I first started and the IRA came out, I put the maximum into it every year -- I had it taken out of my paycheck before I saw it, as I knew I would spend it if I it hit my hands first. Somehow I have over $750,000. Take care of yourself. No one else will do it.

Enjoy your 20s and if you can save a few bucks (especially in a roth), then go ahead. I didn't start saving until I was employed in my 30s and now everything is fine. I had many experiences with wine, women and song in my 20's that were far more pleasurable (then) than thinking about dividend stocks.

Oh Travis...as a GenXer, I can tell you my generation has definitely been in the “planning for retirement” game since our college years. We just don’t expect a trophy for it.

Hope for the working youth of America after all? Time will tell if these millennials are really representative of a new trend towards personal responsibility and saving.

I do the best I can. I max out my Roth IRA each year. But I don't have access to a 401K, because I'm a contractor. Most of the rest of the little money I make goes towards my family's living expenses. Food, water, shelter, transportation. I've tried to do things the right way, and be responsible. I'm married, with one child. I work during the day, and take classes at night. I already have Bachelor's and Master's degrees; unfortunately, they're in the liberal arts, which makes them basically worthless. I paid off all my student debt, and now I pay for classes as I go, so that I don't rack up anymore crippling debt. I hope to get a better job upon graduation, so that my family and I might have a slim chance at a somewhat better life. Other than that, I imagine I'll have to work until the day I die, and even if I'm ever able to retire, I'll have to live like a poor person, spending my middling Roth IRA savings on cheap unhealthy groceries and rising healthcare costs. I don't anticipate receiving Social Security and Medicare, since republicans are evil and democrats are spineless. If I'm lucky, I'll be eligible for food stamps, unless of course republicans get their way on that issue as well. In other words, I'm not looking forward to my future at all. I assume it'll be much like the past, stagnant with only lateral "improvements." The Uhmurican Dream. What a laugh...

Pensions disappeared 30 years ago - very few Baby Boomers have them. Companies phased them out or bought them out. You can open an IRA or Roth IRA on your own. Avoiding debt is the best step you can take. And don’t discount home ownership. Once you are located in a city you want to stay in, buy that house. My retirement is much more secure because I own my home free and clear. No rent or mortgage payment helps those savings go a lot further. The fact that you are thinking about it this early is a great start!

In 1995, I read Eric Tyson’s book “Personal Finance for Dummies” and then his companion book, “Mutual Funds for Dummies.” I found both easy-to-read and even funny at points. These were NOT complex/boring books at all. They were VERY helpful and they helped me to build a great foundation of knowledge/understanding for investing that has helped me tremendously over the past 20+ years. The best tool for building wealth over one’s lifetime is to START EARLY. Another piece of advice… don’t chase the “flavor of the day” stocks that the “experts” on TV are telling you to buy and then sell each day. Put your money in low cost Vanguard/Fidelity INDEX FUNDS and leave it there. BUY AND HOLD. As you get more money… ADD to those funds. Meanwhile… IGNORE the day to day and year to year ups and downs of the stock market. Over periods of 15-30 years, the stock market tends to AVERAGE returns of 8-12% annually. There will be big ups (including years of +25% or more) and big downs (including years of -25% or more). There will be huge crashes and then those crashes will recover. But you have to be in the market and experience “the downs” to experience “the ups,” and the ups, over time, far outweigh the downs… in the long term… you have to stay in for the long term. If you’re in your 20’s/30’s… BUY AND READ THOSE ERIC TYSON “DUMMIES” BOOKS!

Lots of good heads on those shoulders! Travis, with the last word, has it right: This country needs to provide some systemic support. It is not enough to merely "save." To some, that means putting away money in a bank account, which means erosion of those savings via inflation. Even additions to an investment account aren't worth anything over the long haul unless they are always transferred directly into investments, not just the money market fund, and then only if wise (or lucky) choices are made. Everyone should be allowed, encouraged, maybe even required to enroll in the government Thrift savings program-- lots of solid investment choices, not a casino. Would make an excellent partner with Social Security.