I’m not sure I count as a Millennial. After all, Reagan was president when I was born. And I’m old enough to remember Mark Wahlberg by his real name: Marky Mark. So am I a member of Generation Y? I don’t know.
But there’s one thing I do know: I’m pretty tired of all the stereotypes that we’re they’re terrible with money. That we don’t save for retirement. That we spend frivolously. Fidelity recently took to tackling some of those stereotypes. They conducted a study, Millennials and Money, and found some interesting trends about our money saving habits.
They also sent me to the streets of Hollywood to talk to Generation Y-ers about money. Check out the above video for some fun interviews and hard stats from Fidelity’s study. Below are a couple of their key findings.
Millennials are “on their own”
In the video, I asked subjects if their parents ever had the “Money Talk” with them. Yes, the Money Talk. It’s like the sex talk, except it involves being safe with your money.
Overall, they told me their parents did give them broad money advice, but most of what they know they learned on their own. This reaction totally fits with Fidelity’s findings:
When asked who they trust most for information on money matters, one third (33 percent) of Gen Y-ers identify their parents as the top choice, but almost one in four (23 percent) indicate they trust “no one” when it comes to advice about money, making it the second most common response. This lack of trust could be an indication that Gen Y-ers tend to be more independent and prefer making their own money decisions.
They’re saving for retirement
Yep–nearly half of them are already saving for retirement, and more than half say they want to take it up a notch. Not only are they saving, they also seem to understand the importance of preparing for the future.
I loved Andy’s quote in the video:
“‘Now Me’ wants to have fun, but ‘Future Me’ wants to have fun, too.”
Of course, their money habits aren’t perfect, either, and in a release, Fidelity brings up a couple areas of concern. Check out the video to see more findings. And here’s an infographic on the stats.
Fellow Millennials–how do you feel about this topic? Do you think we have more control over our finances than people think? Is there too much speculation on our money habits in general?
Managing your money is like going to the dentist or standing in line at the DMV. Nobody wants to do it, but at some point, it’s inevitable: you need to clean your teeth, renew your license, and manage your money like a grown-up.
Hi Kristin, another Reagan era baby here (barely). I’d be curious to know how much the average millennial is saving for retirement. Many of my millennial coworkers seem to contribute the 401k company-match % and not much more. Personally, I save 50+% of my paycheck. Most of my friends are money-savvy as well, but 1. I have a small group of friends and 2. We are all MBA students. I suppose we’d be a bad sample for the stereotype about millennials and money.
I would assume that part of the “problem” is that for our generation, getting an undergraduate degree is expected if you want to make any decent amount of money without starting your own business. Higher education tends to be expensive.
Student debt is definitely an issue. And as expensive as college is, stats still show that earning-wise, a degree pays off, even with the debt. It’s depressing, but it seems like massive student debt has become a burden most grads have to accept. Check out the documentary Ivory Tower–it’s got some great insight on this topic.
Fidelity’s study didn’t cover how much they’re saving, just the fact that they’re saving, but yeah, that would be interesting to know! I wrote about this over at Get Rich Slowly a while back, and the topic has now been kind of covered to death, but I think the criticisms of how Millennials handle money are universal criticisms that just apply to young people in general. And, actually, most of the data I’ve read shows Gen Y are savers, they seek to be frugal, they contributed their own savings to their tuition, etc. Those are good money habits. But yeah, it’s hard to be THAT good with money when you’ve got huge amounts of student loan debt looming over you.
I know many who are savers but not investors. Has to do with the coming of age during recession. FINRA and other government bodies have indicated Millennials comprise those born 1978-1994. Of course there is differences between those who reached adolescence during the Internet age and those Millennials who came of age during the social age.