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May 22, 2015 at 08:32 AM
Millennials on average are saving for retirement at a rate similar to Gen Xers and baby boomers.
According to T. Rowe Price’s Retirement Saving and Spending study, the millennial participants’ personal deferral rate to their 401(k)s is not far off from those in older generations.
Baby boomers, on average, contribute 9% of their personal income to their 401(k)s, compared with 8% among Gen Xers and millennials.
The study included a representative national survey of 3,026 working adults 18 and older that are contributing to a 401(k) plan or eligible to contribute and have a balance of at least $1,000. This sampling included about 1,500 millennials.
Also, notably, more millennials than any other generation in the study have raised their contributions in the past year.
When asked how the current percentage of income contributed to their 401(k) compared to the past 12 months, 40% of millennial workers said their 401(k) contribution was higher now, compared to 21% of baby boomers and 30% of Gen Xers.
“It’s nice to hear that [millennials] are saving … because we hear that the millennial generation is financially illiterate. So, they are trying to do the right thing,” said Judith Ward, senior financial planner and vice president of T. Rowe Price Investment Services, during a media briefing in New York on Wednesday.
Perhaps, some of millennials’ saving mentality is correlated to their lack of expectations of Social Security.
“When I talk to millennials anecdotally none of them think, at least the ones I’ve talked to, that Social Security is going to be there,” Ward said. “This actually puts more pressure on them to be saving for their retirement.”
Ward also attributes some of millennials’ savings patterns to automatic services, like auto-enrollment and auto-deferral rates.
“I think the auto services has really helped this group as they’ve been one of the first generations to have access of all of these auto services that are in many plans now,” Ward said.
T. Rowe Price’s study asked workers with 401(k)s if they made the decision to enroll in their current 401(k) plan or if they were automatically enrolled with the choice to opt out, and a higher percentage of millennials reported auto-enrollment.
