The average lifespan of today’s American citizen is a little under age 80. Gallup recently reported that the current average age at which American’s retire is 62, the highest age since Gallup started asking this question in 1991.
If we assume that the majority of college educated young adults begin their careers right after graduation by age 23 and retire at age 62, we have around 40 years to save for the last 20 years of our life. This may feel like a long time, and in this society of “gotta have it now,” saving for retirement is not in the forefront of our minds.
Time catches up with many of us, and 46% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and today’s workers are overall less likely to say they have saved for retirement than they did 10 years ago, and those age 25 to 34 have shown the largest drop (Employee Benefits Research Institute).
Navigating the retirement savings landscape is not easy for most of us, but the most important thing we can do as Millennials is develop the habit of saving. Make saving automatic and you may not even miss the dollars from your paycheck. And besides, isn’t it better to miss a few dollars now rather than miss them in retirement?