from Hacker News

Most Millennials are not on track when it comes to saving for retirement

by knuththetruth on 8/13/18, 7:22 PM with 137 comments

• by gnicholas on 8/13/18, 7:55 PM

  > Most have less than $20,000 but some have much more. The average account balance is $67,891

  It is amazing that the median is under $20k and the average is nearly $70k. This means there are some folks with very large retirement savings that are pulling the average up a lot. Considering this only includes folks up to age 32, this is really surprising. How much do these savers have socked away?

  Even when I worked in a big law firm, I didn't put that much in my retirement account because I was mostly saving to be able to buy a house (in the Bay Area). I can't imagine who these millennials are that have so much in a retirement account — presumably they also live in expensive areas if they are able to earn so much?

  Edit: Glad to see all the responses, including from folks who have healthy retirement accounts. It would be great if you could share where you live and whether you have bought or are planning to buy a home.

• by blang on 8/13/18, 8:03 PM

  CNN really loves to write about Millennials and retirement: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=millennials+retirement+site%3Acnn....

  My favorites are: https://money.cnn.com/2014/05/02/retirement/retirement-mille... https://money.cnn.com/2015/05/06/retirement/retirement-savin...

  written almost exactly a year apart and contradicting the other articles

• by kcorbitt on 8/13/18, 8:08 PM

  > "I see in practice that a lot of us are putting retirement down the goal priority list, in favor of paying off student debt or buying homes,"

  If that's the actual reason why retirement savings are low, then this sounds more like a paper crisis than a real one. If you're putting $30k a year towards paying down student loans or home equity, then – assuming nothing changes – eventually you're going to "fill" those buckets and start saving $30k a year for retirement, which over the course of a normal career should be plenty to retire.

  That said, I have my doubts that millenials' low retirement savings as a group is really because they're saving in another bucket.

• by sigfubar on 8/13/18, 7:57 PM

  I'm 32 and have enough cash on hand to last ~3 months in case of unexpected job loss, but that's all. "Retirement" isn't something I expect to be able to do.

• by cix_pkez on 8/13/18, 7:59 PM

  In spite of all the statistics that suggest I'm doing pretty well toward retirement compared to most of my generation, I feel quite a bit of anxiety about how much I'm saving.

  I'm not confident that I'll receive social security. Huge health expenses may come up.

  How do others feel? You're not all billionaire unicorns on this site, are you?

• by bbg215 on 8/13/18, 11:05 PM

  Everyone viewing this thread is likely an extreme outlier. The majority of millennials are prob making less than 50K until their 30s/40s.

• by Finnucane on 8/13/18, 7:32 PM

  I remember how much I had saved for retirement when I was 32. It was pretty much nothing. Also: note to past self, when it occurs to you that you should buy Apple at 16, yes, you should, even though you have no money, and hold it forever.

• by NZThrowaway on 8/14/18, 5:40 AM

  This thread got me thinking and thought I'd post. Made a throw away for this as my real account can be linked to me far too easily... $ are in NZD.

  32, living in down south in New Zealand. Working for clients around the world, mostly in the UK.

  Making $150-180K per year.

  Bank accounts $15K in NZ ~$50K in the UK account from client payments over the last few months

  Own the house we built for $580K in 2016, it has recently been valued at $650K. Have a mortgage on that of $320K.

  Have another mortgage of $180K on a $260K house split with a friend when we brought a rental property at the start of this year.

  Have about $10K worth of crypto, down from dizzying heights at the start of the year :D, from a $4k gamble just over a year ago.

  I think we have ~$20K in a superannuation accounts, which we haven't put anything into since I've been working for myself.

  Interest rates on the mortgages are 4.19% p.a.

  Other than the mortgages we have no other debts. We being my partner and I, our 1 year old, a dog and 2 cats.

  On one hand I feel like we're doing OK. But for the amount I'm making I feel like we should be saving / investing more.

• by gregrata on 8/13/18, 7:58 PM

  So it would be nice if they contrasted this again other generations - "About 66% of people between the ages of 21 and 32 have absolutely nothing saved for retirement". So? My impression is other generations at this age also hadn't exactly been saving a lot. Is this just saying the millennial general is just the same as others? Or way out wack?

• by bcheung on 8/14/18, 1:18 AM

  I never liked the accumulate and pray you have enough to last model. If you don't die before you money runs out your plan fails.

  Any plan that has death as a pre-requisite to be successful is not a very good plan in my book.

  Acquiring income producing assets seems like a much better plan.

• by chadlavi on 8/14/18, 3:17 AM

  A lot of us aren't even on track when it comes to saving for just normal life.

• by purplezooey on 8/14/18, 2:09 AM

  Millennials need to get off their duff and vote. 18% voting rate. One millennial I recently talked to said, "yeah, I just don't know anything other than the signs people put up in their yard.". Wtf.

• by gnicholas on 8/13/18, 8:51 PM

  I wonder how stats like these will impact home prices in 20 years. Will it be a buyer's market because there will be lots of boomers downsizing/deceasing, and not nearly as many buyers flush with cash?

• by sh_123 on 8/14/18, 7:04 AM

  This thread is a wake up call for me.

  What are good resources to learn more about saving for retirement? IRAs, 401Ks, etc.

• by tribesman on 8/14/18, 11:30 AM

  I've saved roughly 15 million and gave away 10 million to my girlfriend.

  From the sale of my company.