Employed millennials, those who are between the ages of 18 and 29, feel better off financially compared to older generational groups, a Monday survey by financial company Bankrate found.
Approximately 23 percent of millennial workers said they feel more secure than they did in 2014, the report stated, and they feel more secure in their ability to obtain jobs and save money than any other age group.
“The survey that accompanied the index showed that people felt better about their job security, debt levels, net worth and overall financial situation when compared with how they felt a year ago,” a Monday press release stated.
About a third of millennials reported better overall financial situation than in 2014 compared to 19 percent of working adults age 50 and older, the report stated.
Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst and senior vice president, said the inexperience of millennials does not play a huge part in their feelings.
“The poll is measuring progress or deterioration in one’s finances over the past year. The amount of financial experience isn’t terribly relevant to that,” he wrote in an email. “Case in point, some of the worst feelings of financial security come from Americans between the ages of 50-64, and they have exponentially more financial experience than Millennials.”
McBride said millennials’ lack of involvement with financial markets might have an influence on the findings of the study.
“While millennials are doing pretty well financially, their net worth is being held back because they aren’t as invested as older adults in the stock and housing markets,” he said.
Compared to other generations, millennials reported not finding luck in increasing their net worth and they are less interested in investment in stocks and the housing market, the report stated.
Israel Shaked, a finance professor in Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, said that younger people tend to more naive and confident coming out of college.
“Younger people … don’t worry about their finances in the future and are little concerned. They are not doing better, but feel better”, he said. “After college people are optimistic. They don’t have enough for retirement. Most young people don’t think of this stuff.”
William Chambers, a professor in the Metropolitan College, said millennials could have possibly felt very unstable a year ago, but now feel a lot more secure, he said.
“The absence of much financial experience and knowledge might mean that millennials are more ready to rely on some more relatively superficial indicators to drive their feelings while those with longer job/financial experience may be a bit more cautious,” he wrote in an email,” both about their existing situation and changes in it.”
Several students said they feel confident in their ability to manage their finances.
Aiden Thomas, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she feels more stable and learned to manage her finances through her part time jobs.
“I do personally [feel financially stable] because I have a bunch of part-time jobs, so I work a lot especially in the summer and I have a work study at school, so I feel like I make more money. I have to pay for everything myself,” she said. “As time goes on I am learning to manage it better myself and I am feeling more secure with my finances.” (Source: mejores brokers forex)
George Logan, a sophomore in the Questrom, said he works and was taught to be mindful of the money he earns.
“I take care of my money because I worked hard doing fx trade in the France for it. I’m pretty frugal and I use Amazon a lot because Amazon is by far the cheapest place to purchase things,” he said. “I never had an allowance or anything like that. I can do with my money what I want, but if my own money is gone, it’s gone.”
Samantha Gross contributed to the reporting of this article.
