Those
of
us
born
between
1981
and
1996
were
branded
as
Millennials
long
before
we
were
old
enough
to
have
any
say
in
it.
In
the
decades
after
Millennials
entered
the
world
and
the
workforce,
unfairly
maligning
the
work
ethic
and
financial
acumen
of
the
Millennial
generation
practically
became
its
own
cottage
industry.
Fortunately,
the
last
few
years
have
taken
some
of
the
heat
off
Millennials
as
the
next
youngest
demographic
cohort,
Generation
Z,
does
its
own
things
to
confuse
and
alienate
old
people.
So,
Zoomers,
on
behalf
of
my
generation
to
yours,
thank
you.
Keep
the
fun
TikTok
dances
and
equally
informed
foreign
policy
takes
coming.
Meanwhile,
Millennials
will
continue
to
quietly
subvert
expectations.
For
some
of
us,
the
evidence
has
been
building
for
a
while
that
Millennials,
as
a
group,
actually
seem
to
possess
better
financial
instincts
than
prior
generations.
The
latest
data
point
supporting
this
hypothesis
comes
in
a
new
report
from
Vanguard,
the
largest
provider
of
mutual
funds.
When
it
comes
to
retirement
savings,
Millennials
are
outperforming
their
elders.
For
its
research,
Vanguard
compared
pre-retirement
income
and
savings
at
different
income
levels
to
the
amount
households
would
need
to
amass
in
order
to
retire
comfortably.
Millennials
were
found
to
be
more
likely
to
retire
comfortably
than
Baby
Boomers
at
every
income
level
except
at
the
lowest
quartile
for
income.
At
that
level
of
income,
Millennials
and
Baby
Boomers
were
found
to
be
equally
on
track
for
retirement.
The
differences
between
Millennial
and
Baby
Boomer
savers
were
especially
pronounced
at
higher
income
levels.
For
instance,
of
the
age
cohorts
examined,
Millennials
at
or
above
the
95th
percentile
for
income
were
22
percent
ahead
of
their
high-earning
Baby
Boomer
counterparts
in
exceeding
the
calculated
sustainable
replacement
rate
(defined
as
the
highest
level
of
consumption
as
a
share
of
pre-retirement
income
capable
of
being
sustained
in
90
percent
of
market-return/mortality
scenarios).
I
must
say,
I
do
appreciate
“mortality
scenarios”
as
a
euphemism
for
“death.”
Not
to
leave
out
Gen
Xers
(no
matter
how
much
they
may
be
used
to
it):
Members
of
Generation
X
also
outperformed
Baby
Boomers
with
their
retirement
savings
at
every
income
level
except
the
lowest
(where
they
were
just
slightly
behind).
Members
of
Generation
X
saving
for
retirement
couldn’t
keep
up
with
Millennials
though:
They
were
fairly
substantially
outpaced
by
Millennial
savers
at
nearly
every
income
level.
Although
I
would
love
to
attribute
the
good
qualities
of
my
generation
to
our
grit
and
determination
in
the
face
of
several
economic
catastrophes
as
we
entered
the
workforce,
so
as
to
rub
it
in
the
faces
of
the
naysayers
who
blamed
the
financial
struggles
of
young
people
on
the
irrepressible
impulse
to
dine
on
overpriced
avocado
toast,
boring
old
policy
changes
(as
they
often
do)
probably
deserve
most
of
the
credit.
In
recent
years
more
employers
have
embraced
the
automation
of
both
enrollment
in
and
increasing
contributions
to
401(k)
plans.
Vanguard
noted
in
its
research
that
automatic
retirement
account
enrollment
leads
to
a
91
percent
participation
rate,
whereas
when
savers
need
to
opt-in
to
a
retirement
savings
plan
only
28
percent
choose
to
do
so.
By
the
time
they
retire,
Millennials
will
have
had
much
more
time
than
Baby
Boomers
in
a
labor
market
in
which
automatic
retirement
savings
plan
enrollment
is
the
default.
So,
even
if
all
they
did
to
accomplish
it
was
fail
to
login
to
change
the
default
setting
of
an
account,
I
suppose
Millennial
retirement
savers
deserve
congratulations.
The
market
has
been
on
a
tear
of
late,
and
with
December
typically
being
a
particularly
good
month
for
stocks,
more
gains
are
likely
on
the
way.
It
feels
nice
to
see
a
big
number
when
you
get
around
to
examining
your
retirement
account
statements,
particularly
when
it’s
bigger
than
more
experienced
savers
ever
thought
it
would
be.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at jon_wolf@hotmail.com.