Millennials vs. Boomers: Who’s Doing a Better Job Saving for Retirement?
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By one measure, millennials and Gen Xers are in better financial shape than boomers when it comes to saving for retirement.
Both older millennials (ages 37 to 41) and Gen Xers (ages 49 to 53) are better equipped to meet their retirement-spending needs than young boomers (ages 61 to 65), according to a retirement outlook report by the financial firm Vanguard.
In particular, millennials are faring better than both older groups when it comes to saving enough money to replace their income during retirement, and that holds true across the income spectrum.
Wealthy millennials — the top 5% of earners, with a median income of $173,000 — are on track to far exceed their spending needs in retirement and are notably outpacing the savings of the Gen Xers and boomers in Vanguard’s study.
Of the lower- and middle-income earners across generations — those who earn median incomes between $22,000 and $61,000 — none are expected to have adequate savings to meet their spending needs in retirement, according to Vanguard's analysis. Still, millennials fare better than their elders here, too.
