A Half Of Millennials Live Paycheck To Paycheck, Most Don't Think They Will Ever Be Millionaires

Zero Hedge ^ | 4AUG16 | Tyler Durden

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A Half Of Millennials Live Paycheck To Paycheck, Most Don't Think They Will Ever Be Millionaires

by Tyler Durden

Aug 3, 2016 7:59 PM

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In a stark refutation of Obama's "recovery" narrative, most millennials don't see a bright future for their personal finances.

Take the case of Shaun Luberski, a 21-year-old recent graduate of Temple University, who is skeptical she will be able to save $1 million by the time she retires. Ms. Luberski landed a full-time job as an account coordinator at Philadelphia magazine and works various side jobs in marketing and promotions. 

A big problem plaguing Shaun and millions of her peers: student loans. She lives at home rent-free with her parents in Levittown, Pa. But with roughly $30,000 in student loans to pay back, she isn’t sure she will ever be a millionaire.

“I hate my student loans,” she says. Because of them, she says she isn’t able to move out as soon as she would like and needs to carefully monitor how much she is spending each month on expenses such as Uber rides and meals out.

Which is odd, considering recently the White House was praising the "boon" to the economy that $1.3 trillion in student loans represents. No, really: the conclusion of the study was that "The main macroeconomic impact of student loans, particularly over the longer run, is via the boost to output and productivity form a more educated workforce." Perhaps not.

Sarcasm aside, Luberski is not alone: according to a study by market-research firm GfK, most millennials say they are skeptical they will ever be millionaires, a finding which according to the WSJ "reflects the tough job market and high student debt many young adults started their working lives with."

Wait, what tough job market? Hasn't the Obama administration also been pounding a narrative according to which the job situation is impeccable and the only "problem" with the current job market is that there are too many job openings and not enough qualified candidates. The fact that millions of students are raking up billions in student loans is precisely to make them more qualified to get those hard to get jobs. Just where are those hundreds of billions in loan proceeds going?

While it is unclear just who believes any of the economic stories spewed forth by the US president, what is clear is that 64% of working millennials say they will never accumulate $1 million in retirement savings over their lifetime, according to study released Wednesday. The study was conducted online between April 11 and April 26, 2016, by market-research firm GfK and surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. adults between the age of 22 and 35. Participants needed to be employed (not in the financial services/banking industry) and a U.S. resident for at least three years.

So why are most Millennials so quick to dismiss the "recovery" narrative? Low incomes, the gender wage gap and college loans are some of the reasons for millennials’ lack of optimism, according to the WSJ.

“There are some real headwinds facing this generation,” says Joe Ready, director of institutional retirement and trust for Wells Fargo. Those headwinds are heightened for millennials who earn low incomes and who aren’t working in their preferred career, he says.

Keep in mind, Millennials are now America's biggest generation. They now are also its most disenchanted.

Some more details on their financials: according to the study, the nearly two-thirds of millennials who say they won’t be able to accumulate $1 million report a median personal income of $27,900. The 32% who do expect to save $1 million report a median annual personal income of $53,000. Good luck with that.

Worse, according to the study 54% of millennial women reported they live paycheck-to-paycheck compared with 43% of men. Millennial men report a median personal income of $39,100 compared with $28,800 for women. 

There is a sliver of silver lining, with 59% of Millennial respondents saying they have started saving, however that brings us to even more bad news - it won't be enough. The report finds that millennials who have started to save for retirement, 44% report they are saving 1% to 5% of their income, 33% are saving 6% to 10% of their income and only 6% are saving 11% to 14%, which is the minimum amount they need to save to attain the desired 7-figure retirement amount.

And so, with such a bleak future to look forward to, we can understand why an entire generation's most merkatble skill is making selfies. Hopefully the next administration will think of ways to make that into a lucrative career.

[Gunslingr3]

Most people won’t become millionaires. Until the hyper inflation starts, anyway.

Ha! Jokes on them, they're gonna be Billionaires

[miss marmelstein]

Good luck with your business! I’ve been broke, too. Doing better now and so will you!

[MrEdd]

By far the biggest factor I see is that (starting with the generation that were children during WW2) idiot parents began sheltering their little couch potatoes from holding down jobs until after college, or at least after high school. They had a disputed (and now thoroughly disproven) notion that their non productive little darlings would somehow developed a work ethic after being idle until they were eighteen or twenty two.

That was as brilliant as starting their children on foreign languages to make them a linguist when they are eighteen or twenty two. Sure, some succede... in spite of the stupidity of the course taken.

Generations have now seen little else. And the folks who are most appalled at the sense of entitlement the most recent generations exhibit actively brought it about.

I worked for a moving company loading furniture when I was fourteen. The generations of parents immediately after mine made that illegal.

[tflabo]

I’m a little concerned about my 26 yr old niece. She still lives at home although she has a college degree but doesnt drive, has no job and doesn’t get out much other than with her sister. She’s brain smart but not in living her life.

[M-cubed]

Cost too much for college?...ask what Lizzy Warren made per hour teaching.....

[PGR88]

Continue with the Federal Reserve money printing and government debt spending, and inflation will make us all millionaires before very long.

[Panzerfaust]

Amen brother! STEM grad here, who invested in my company 401k to the max, from 1992 onward. Went to ROTH 401k as soon as I could and now most of my savings is tax free forever. Went the first 13 years of my career with no vacation, to max out savings for retirement. Now at age 50, I’m well on track to hang it up in 4-5 years. Did I regret missing 26 weeks of travel(13 missed years of vacation time 2 weeks per year)? Yes. But retiring 10 years early (520 weeks early) seems to ease the sting a bit. You can pay now or pay Lester, but everyone pays.

FWIW, for the millennial idiots referenced on the article, $2,000,000 in savings will generate $80,000 per year in retirement income. After taxes, that gives you about $60k per year for your retirement. If you can’t save $2,000,000, you can kiss Amber rides and eating out goodbye. Buy a bicycle and learn to cook, chumps.....

[ully2]

The progesives won’t be happy until everyone lives paycheck to paycheck.

[Oatka]

Don’t give up —when she leaves the cocoon of college and gets hit in the face with reality, she’ll probably realize how intelligent her parents are.....

[Apocryphal Mark Twain quote]
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."

[GnuThere]

If she hates her student loans, one would also wonder why she’s blowing money on Uber and restaurants.

[publius911]

A Half Of Millennials Live Paycheck To Paycheck, Most Don't Think They Will Ever Be Millionaires

I didn't even read the article, after reading that headline.

Talk about two incompatible subjects and a "propaganda" fueled headline in one sentence.

[roadcat]

Both our kids are not yet 30. One is a millionaire and the other is on his way to being a millionaire.

Congratulations! You done real good raising your kids! I know other families like yours, where the kids are trained to be entrepreneurs, and they do well. Majority aren't, but kudos to the ones who are with the entrepreneurial spirit.

My kids are doing well, but are not millionaires. They work for others in companies. One just quit a highly paid manager position (making close to $200K) to concentrate on starting a business with her husband. I had some concerns when she was a teen not listening to my advice over that of her friends. Me and my wife became well off by being conservative, and it finally sunk in for my kids to be conservatives when they went to work. Millennials who aren't taught that they can be successful, have a rough road ahead. Congrats again.

[Cronos]

I didn’t know that. Also, the fact that there are no year-end tests, no keeping-back of students, no emphasis on maths and science.

[knarf]

I'm weird about picking up on little things like that.

My grand daughter graduated from pre-school last year and enters kindergarten this year and I was immediately struck with that realization when the class sang OMD as part of their graduation ceremony.

Worse ... it is a church sponsored pre-school.

My radar is tuned for stuff like that.

[knarf]

feh ...... I'm working on my SECOND million right now !

I gave up on trying to get the first.

[super7man]

Millennials who aren't taught that they can be successfu

There is the key. Or even worse they are thaught that they can NOT be successful without the government.

Best wishes to your kids as well.

[Yaelle]

Too many people who need to work. No manufacturing or entry to mid level customer service jobs. A social shaming to any young person who doesn’t attempt to go to university. University costs skyrocketing, necessitating loans for nearly every student. University degrees nearly worthless for earning a good living.

There isn’t much chance to rise up and fulfil the American Dream.

When I was a kid, usually only one parent worked. In the secure middle class, which did exist though it was taxed to hell, half the people didn’t NEED to work. They could create a happy home, raise the kids, volunteer. There was margin in the American middle class. People could breathe.

Now, everyone needs to work desperately and there is no margin anywhere. You have to be a multi millionaire to relax about money for five minutes.

[al baby]

OMD ? thanks

[knarf]

check your grand kids to see if they go through a list, or sing each one individually without incorporating the previous “noises”

[RWB Patriot]

You reap what you sow, boys and girls.