Gen Zers Are Eyeing an Early Retirement (2024)

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Gen Zers Are Eyeing an Early Retirement? ›

Six in 10 Gen Zers say they plan on retiring at age 65 or younger, 10 points higher than the general population. This gap is due to more Gen Zers wanting to retire by age 60: 35% of Gen Zers say they expect to retire by age 60, compared with 26% of the general population.

Americans' ideas of what constitutes retirement is also shifting, and Irwin suspects many Gen Zers just want more freedom—to travel, to be present for their children, to pursue passion projects before their sixties or seventies.

Generation Z's Savings Account Balances

Although Gen Z is the least likely of any generation to have $100 or less in a savings account, Gen Zers are still likely to have relatively low savings overall — 56% of Gen Z has $1,000 or less in savings.

Meanwhile, millennials expect to retire around 64 while the average Gen Zer says, perhaps a tad too optimistically, 60. The good news is, as the Vanguard report shows, employees of every generation are saving a lot more than they used to.

A study conducted by the St. Louis Federal Reserve's Institute for Economic Equity has found that over one in three members of Gen Z had no source of income whatsoever as of 2022. [RELATED: The Forgotten Man: U.S. Faces Nationwide Decline in Workforce Participation Among Men…]

Gen-Z feels substantial anxiety and stress about jobs, long-term financial stability and major life steps, such as buying a home and starting a family.

Skincare experts warn that getting Botox or using anti-aging creams too early can cause unwanted side effects and that vaping and e-cigarettes, which Gen-Zers gravitate toward, can also cause premature aging.

The Federal Reserve also measures median and mean (average) savings across other types of financial assets. According to the data, the average 70-year-old has approximately: $60,000 in transaction accounts (including checking and savings) $127,000 in certificate of deposit (CD) accounts.

For example, a new study by the Investment Company Institute (ICI) finds that “Gen Z households have nearly three times more assets in the [retirement] plan accounts (adjusted for inflation) that Gen X households did at the same age.” More Gen Z-ers have retirement plans set up and they've saved more in those accounts.

Will Gen Z live a long life? ›

The members of Generation Z, the oldest of which are now in their 20s, on average are expected to live to 100 and beyond. Health technology may or may not eventually lift Gen Zers well past that. They could be the generation that collectively hits the biological ceiling.

Overall total average payments for the state of California: Total number of beneficiaries: 6,166,205. Total benefits: $9,340,498,000. Average total benefits: $1,515.

Generation Z are job hoppers. This trend began with Millennials, but Gen Z is, so far, carrying it on to an even greater degree, remaining at one job for only two years and three months on average (see graphic below).

46% of Gen Z spent more on fashion than anything else in 2022 (5WPR) Gen Z was the only generation to have clothing and fashion as their top spending category. 30% of Gen Z spent more on beauty and personal care than anything else, far more than any other generation.

Gen Z is wealthier than other generations at the same age | Fortune.

Generation Z is the loneliest generation that the world has seen, with isolation rates higher than both millennials and members of Generation X.

Gen Zers face greater obstacles to financial success

Not only are their wages lower than their parents' earnings when they were in their 20s and 30s, but they are also carrying larger student loan balances.

The members of Generation Z, the oldest of which are now in their 20s, on average are expected to live to 100 and beyond. Health technology may or may not eventually lift Gen Zers well past that. They could be the generation that collectively hits the biological ceiling.

Gen Z households have nearly three times more assets in their DC plan accounts (adjusted for inflation) than Gen X households did at the same age (in 1989). More than half of DC account owners younger than 35 said they probably wouldn't save for retirement if not for their workplace plan.

In a February poll, YouGov asked millennials when they expect to retire. The largest share, 30%, chose the age range of 51 to 60. Another recent survey, by Principal Financial, found that the average millennial expects to retire at 59. Other retirement surveys find millennials planning to work well into their sixties.