On Stress Awareness Day, we take a look at the pain points causing Millennials to stress about their money. A new Bank of America report, which analyzed the financial habits of over 1,000 Millennials, found that the majority of respondents felt they weren’t saving enough for future expenses like home buying and retirement.
Best Money Moves spoke with Haley Ross of the Bank of America Better Money Habits team to gain more insight into the report.
What is the biggest takeaway from the survey?
Bank of America’s Better Money Habits 2018 Millennial Report covers a number of issues relating to millennials and finances. One of the biggest takeaways from this year’s report is that while millennials are just as good – if not better than – other generations at saving their money and budgeting, finances are still a top source of stress from them. In fact, a quarter of millennials (defined as ages 23-37) said they worry often about their finances, and the majority (73 percent) worry at least sometimes. In addition, about a third (35 percent) of millennials say that not having enough money saved is their top financial stress.
How do Millennials differ from other generational cohorts?
Millennials are really getting their financial houses in order. They are just as good, or better than other generations when it comes to managing money. They are more likely to set savings goals – and a majority meet them. That might contribute to why most millennials feel financially secure – at a level on par with Generation Xers and Boomers. We also see differences when it comes to millennials and their careers; this generation is more likely to advocate for themselves at work by asking for a raise, for example. In fact, about half of millennials have asked for a raise in the past two years, compared to less than 20 percent of Gen Z, one in three (36 percent) of Gen X and less than 40 percent of Baby Boomers.
Were you surprised by the survey results? Why?
As a millennial myself, I see my friends and peers often stressed about money, so the survey results rang very true to what I’ve experienced. The good news for me is that our age group are young enough to start developing smarter money habits that can help reduce some of that financial stress. One place that they can turn to for tools and resources is Better Money Habits, a free financial education platform that aims to help anyone – and especially millennials – make managing money more intuitive, a little bit easier and, hopefully, less stressful. Through Better Money Habits, people can find things like tips on how to create a budget and a spending analysis tool, which can help people make sense of where their money goes each money so they’re not stressed out by unexpected expenses.
Do you think Millennials are getting more or less stressed out and why?
The Better Money Habits Millennial Report is conducted every year, and each year we see pretty consistent levels of stress: about three-quarters said they were worried about money often or sometimes in 2014, on par with the 2018 results. Their top two stressors remained the same as well – not having enough money saved and their careers. So, despite having “grown up” more since then, saving and their career is still causing them the most stress.
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