The vast majority of working Americans say it will be more difficult to retire comfortably than it was for their parents’ generation — even as current retirees also suffer brutal economic conditions.
A whopping 82 percent of respondents in CNBC’s August 2024 Your Money retirement survey said that achieving a “comfortable retirement is much harder or somewhat harder than it was for their parents’ generation,” the outlet reported Wednesday.
Four in ten American workers said they are behind in saving for their retirement — mostly due to being in debt, having insufficient income, and/or beginning to save later in their careers.
Over half of workers (52 percent) said they are planning to work in “some capacity” after retirement.
Jake Loberg, a generation Z media planner living in Fargo, North Dakota, told CNBC that it is difficult to balance spending money on his social life and putting away for the future.
“I’m someone who always tries to live in the moment and take things a day at a time, which a lot of times means saying ‘screw it’ and booking a trip on a whim,” the 23-year-old said. “I also know it’s not something I can afford to do on a regular basis, so finding that balance is something I’m still working through.”
While he has decades before retirement, Loberg has been increasingly pondering it while watching his parents get closer to that age.
His father’s longtime employer has a stock ownership plan for employees, which has aided his retirement savings greatly as his career winds down. Loberg said his parents are planning to purchase a lake house in Minnesota and spend their years traveling.
“The likelihood of me saving via my 401(k) and Roth IRA an amount close to what my dad will have in his ESOP is pretty unlikely,” the young professional said.
He will try to remain optimistic and make smart choices, but also prioritizes living life outside of work.
“I’m doing everything I can now to set myself up for success later in life, but if my circumstances change I’ll have to deal with that if and when something happens,” Loberg added. “I get happiness from a lot of places in my life outside of my career and finances, which to me is the most important thing.”
Even the young adults who earn exceptionally high salaries “still feel like they aren’t getting ahead because of how much health care costs and how much housing costs and everything,” Katherine Fox, a financial planner and founder of Sunnybranch Wealth, told the outlet.
“A lot of advice that people who are older give about how you should save is totally out of touch with the reality, in a way that I think is actually really harmful because it makes people feel so defeated,” she explained.
While many young people struggle with the reality that they have it worse off than their parents, the CNBC survey also found that many current retirees are already struggling — a lot.
While most retiree respondents said that their retirement has at least met their expectations, one in five (21 percent) said they had zero retirement savings.
Over half (56 percent) were concerned about their savings not lasting throughout their retirement.
Fox advised older people to utilize “creative ways to navigate how expensive life is,” such as relocating to an area with a lower cost of living.
About one in three retirees have already done this, according to the survey.
Despite these efforts and more rigorous saving in their young adulthood compared to many gen-zers, the poll still found that “nearly all retirees depend on Social Security payments.”
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