--- title: 'Millennials vs. Boomers: Who’s Doing a Better Job Saving for Retirement?' description: Millennials and Gen X are doing a better job of saving for retirement than boomers, partially because of more auto-enrollment in 401(k)s. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-10-04T18:32:32.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T13:51:43.000Z' section: Retirement tags: - News word_count: 701 canonical: https://money.com/saving-for-retirement-millennials-vs-boomers/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo-illustration of people, polka dots, and money.](https://img.money.com/2023/10/News-Retirement-Millennials-GenX-.jpg) By one measure, millennials and Gen Xers are in better financial shape than boomers when it comes to [saving for retirement](https://money.com/save-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](https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/research/pdf/the_vanguard_retirement_outlook.pdf) 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. ## Begin benefiting from an IRA account from JP Morgan ### It's never too late to open an account for your retirement. Select your state to begin contributing today. [Start Investing](https://money.com/pr/u13c0ba77418?ap_referrer=%2Fsaving-for-retirement-millennials-vs-boomers%2F) ## Why younger retirement savers are pulling ahead What’s fueling the trend and giving an advantage to younger savers? More employer-sponsored retirement plans are automatically enrolling workers and in effect socking away a portion of each paycheck into their [401(k) plans](https://money.com/what-is-a-401k-rollover/) — without them having to take any action. Today, about 60% of employers using Vanguard’s retirement plans automatically enroll new workers. That’s a stark contrast from 2006, when Congress passed the Pension Protection Act to encourage automatic enrollment. Then, only 10% of employers were doing so. Vanguard analysts point to these types of retirement trends and policies as a key reason why younger savers are on sounder financial footing than boomers, who worked most of their careers without automatic enrollment. “Although many portray younger generations as facing more hurdles for retirement savings,” Fiona Greig, Vanguard’s head of investor research, said in a news release, “millennial and Gen X savers have benefited significantly” from these developments and generally appear to be better off compared to boomers. ## Start setting up an IRA today with JP Morgan! ### Click below to rollover or start an IRA. [Start Investing](https://money.com/pr/ta233c6a0731?ap_referrer=%2Fsaving-for-retirement-millennials-vs-boomers%2F) ## Will millennials and Gen X stay ahead? While younger boomers aren’t as prepared for retirement as the other age groups that Vanguard analyzed, they’re not necessarily in dire financial straits. They have several options. For one, the homeownership rate for boomers is much higher than Gen Xers — whose rate is much higher than millennials. Vanguard notes that one strategy for boomers to bridge their retirement-savings gap is to tap into their [home’s equity](https://money.com/best-home-equity-loans/). One option is to take out a [reverse mortgage](https://money.com/best-reverse-mortgage/), which can provide tax-free monthly payments to supplement one’s retirement income. Boomers may also want to move to a lower-cost housing market. This “retire and relocate” strategy can particularly benefit homeowners in Washington, D.C., Hawaii, California, Colorado, Massachusetts and other in-demand states who sell and move to less-expensive areas, particularly in the Midwest Folks nearing retirement age can choose to [delay collecting Social Security benefits](https://money.com/wait-collect-social-security-extra-benefits/), a strategy that in some cases can increase their lifetime payout by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, a major retirement obstacle is resurfacing for younger generations: [student debt payments](https://money.com/student-loan-payments-restart-what-to-know/). Millennials and Gen Xers far and away hold the most debt from [student loans](https://money.com/student-loans/), and monthly payments are due again starting this month. According to a [study from the financial firm Nationwide](https://news.nationwide.com/092723-two-thirds-of-employees-say-student-loan-repayments-will-derail-retirement-plans/), two-thirds of surveyed student loan borrowers said that restarted payments will “significantly” hinder their ability to save for retirement. The SECURE Act 2.0 also has a provision to ease the burden of student debt for these retirement savers by allowing employers to contribute to a worker’s retirement account for each student loan payment they make. While helpful, forthcoming provisions like this and broader adoption of automatic enrollment can’t fill the entire retirement-savings gap, though, as about 50% of the private workforce doesn’t have access to a retirement plan through their employer. Many of these folks will rely on Social Security benefits as their main source of income. For them, “the outlook is challenging,” the authors wrote. ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/22145/medium_add8dc72-0c71-4e11-a480-2e2335612296.png) Begin setting up an IRA with SoFi® today! 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