Baby Boomers, Millennials Have More In Common Than You Might Think
Millennials have been taking flak lately for being ill-prepared for retirement. But American Advisors Group conducted a study to determine how both Millennials and Baby Boomers feel about work and retirement, and was surprised by the results.
“In setting out to do this study, we were anticipating stark differences in the responses of Baby Boomers and Millennials based off the way the two groups are commonly characterized,” AAG’s Jeff Lawrence tells Bisnow. But overall, the generations gave "surprisingly similar responses when asked about topics like their expected retirement age, the most important factors to consider when evaluating a job opportunity and the importance of a college education to future career success.”
At What Age Do You Plan To Retire?
Of the 1,000 Millennials and 1,000 Baby Boomers sampled in the survey, 27% of Baby Boomers plan to retire between the ages of 60 and 65, and 26.4% of Millennials hope to do the same before they reach 70.
How Much Do You Hope To Save For When You Retire?
This is a huge surprise: Millennials have saved more for retirement than the previous generation. About 34.1% of the Baby Boomers surveyed have saved more than $1M for retirement, compared to the 40.5% of Millennials surveyed.
What Benefits Are Most Important When Selecting Job Opportunities?
When looking into new career opportunities, both Millennials and Baby Boomers believe potential salary is a top priority, then comes the overall happiness the job brings, followed by insurance benefits. Retirement preparation is the fourth-most-valuable benefit when pursuing a new job—39% of Baby Boomers value retirement benefits over all else, compared to 38.9% of Millennials.
How Important Is Having A College Education To Your Success?
Both Baby Boomers and Millennials consider a college education to be imperative when pursuing a successful career, though Millennials believe it more, with 49.6% of those surveyed agreeing it's very important, compared to Baby Boomers' 38.3%.
To What/Whom Do You Attribute Your Understanding Of Retirement?
On this topic, the two generations differ—35.1% of Baby Boomers say they received their knowledge of retirement-related planning through a financial planner, while 29.4% of the Millennials surveyed attribute their retirement knowledge to their parents.
