Millennial here - gen Z has retirement savings???
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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lol right? Must be nice to afford to put more than your employer’s match into your 401k
What the hell is an employer match?
- Millennials, probably
As far as I understand, I don't have a 401k. I have nothing. I have never considered retirement to be a reasonable outcome for anyone in my generation or younger, but even still, it's not like I would have been able to save more than a scant couple thousand after decades of work.
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Not if they're dipping into it at 30. That's going to kill any kind of compound interest.
I'm about to be 29, and have literally zero savings to speak of. I've been paycheck-to-paycheck pretty much my entire working life.
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Millennial here- I'm bout to not have retirement savings.
It'll be the best avocado toast ever though, right?
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I had 14 grand in a 401k. I had to spend it to survive for a year while I looked for a job. All of it.
Now I know 14k aint shit. But that is where we are.
14k would have been $132k in 45 years when you would have otherwise retired.
The power is in the interest. Even if you max out your 401k in the future it cannot make up for missing interest earnings on early deposits. Having to use it it now means nobody in this entire generation will ever retire, ever.
Just to put it into perspective, if the inflation rate for the past 45 years predicts the next 45 years. $14K today = $55K in 45 years. A $75K household income today would be $294K in 45 years.
So $14K in a 401K saved for 45 years is a pittance and should never be considered a retirement "program". It's all bullshit to decrease and eliminate the cost of actual pension programs.
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I had $20K a 401K and $15K in school loans when I swapped jobs in my late 20's. Guess what I did with it.
3 years later I was able to purchase my first house because I saved up money instead of paying the student loans.
Right now I should be maximizing my retirement savings according to all the advisors. Instead I am using the money to pay for my kids college so they can start off in life above zero instead of -$50k like my wife and I did.
I figured out a long time ago that there is no way in hell I can retire and remain in the U.S. The system is rigged against me. So my goal for the next 10 years is to learn Spanish.
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You got to love that media outlet. They can't even write an accurate headline. If people are skipping meals, they aren't getting by.
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Gen X here, same fucking story.
Yeah what I said last time I saw this article.
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Which generation isn’t doing this? I don’t think it is a generational cadre thing. I think it is a class thing.
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Millennials be like…
You guys have retirement savings?
Yeah, because everything is ridiculously expensive and no one makes any money.
This situation in untenable. We need universal basic income. It can be financed if we tax the rich. It won't lead to inflation higher than the extra income. It merely gives small and middle sized companies a way to compete in the economy.
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Billionaires have all our money. Maybe we could ask for it back nicely.
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The survey this is based on has a summary page, but they don’t post their survey error estimates. What I can tell, without giving them my email, is that the entire survey was 250 adults. How many of those are “gen z” I have no idea, but if you are generous and say 1/4 that is 63 people considered gen z. The 46 percent that reported dipping into savings would then be about 29.
Just so everyone prognosticating about the state of the economy in this thread is aware, you are commenting on a survey that has a very low n and did not publish any sort of margin of error.
Have you actually read the other comments? Because the majority from what I can see are talking about their OWN experiences, and agreeing with the findings. I myself have done all three things in the headline in the past year.
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Soon there will be a critical mass of people who have nothing left to lose
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Gen Z has retirements? 🤔
It's amazing how badly small amount of people can treat large amount of people and get away with it.
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Millennial but I've been doing this for the last 4-5 years at this point
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Im Xer and my wife is to. We are doing that now to some degree. We were actually sorta trying to dejunk but now we are scared we might need something and not have the money to buy it so not getting rid of stuff as much.
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Stupidly expensive cost of living in some countries and even certain regions.
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