The old saying "Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse" may be soaking into the millennial generation. PGIM Investments has found in its 2018 Retirement Preparedness Survey that a majority of millennials (62%) planned to retire only when they had enough money, but 31% were not saving for retirement at all as they didn't see "the point of planning for retirement because anything can happen between now and then."
The study also found 25% of all pre-retirees were not sure how much they needed to save to retire and gave themselves a "C" for preparedness.
These findings are especially troublesome as retirement income is becoming less predictable with the reduction in pension plans and questions about the continuity of Social Security. The survey also found that the Gen Xers had more concern about retirement than the millennials. They estimated they would need $2.5 million on average to retire, while millennials projected they would need $1.1 million.
The study of 1,514 adults, conducted online by Harris Poll between Jan. 18 and Feb. 1, was commissioned by PGIM Investments, the investment manufacturing and distribution arm of PGIM, the global asset management business of Prudential Financial. It also found that millennials believe "people will no longer retire comfortably in the future," and almost 66% believed that full-time employment will largely disappear and that freelancers will make up 75% or more of the U.S. workforce.
Further, more than half of pre-retirees expect to generate income by continuing to work either full time or part time after they "retire," compared with only 6% of current retirees.
