Retirement Saving Remains Elusive for Millennials

PGIM Investments' 2018 Retirement Preparedness Survey of 1,514 adults estimated that 62 percent of millennials planned for retirement only when they had enough money, but 31 percent were not saving at all because they did not see "the point of planning for retirement because anything can happen between now and then," reports ThinkAdvisor . In addition, 25 percent of all pre-retirees were uncertain about how much they needed to save to retire. The poll also determined Gen Xer respondents were more worried about retirement than millennials, calculating that they would need $2.5 million on average to retire, while millennials estimated that they would require $1.1 million. PGIM learned that millennials think "people will no longer retire comfortably in the future," while nearly 66 percent believed full-time employment will largely vanish and freelancers will comprise at least 75 percent of the U.S. workforce. The modern retiree usually bases their decision to retire on age and eligibility for Social Security or pensions, but the survey found future generations said when they retire will be shaped less by age and more by reaching a certain level of affluence. Overall debt levels for households nearing or already in retirement have risen from 54 percent in 1992 to 68 percent in 2016, and with millennials saddled with student loans, that issue becomes increasingly important.