Retirement will feel like a long way away for millennials, but it comes around faster than you’d think.
Millennials are ageing up and are no longer the new generation on the block and, being now aged between 28 and 44 years old, need to start thinking about their financial planning.
You’re never too young to start saving for retirement and you can often talk to your employer or HR department about maximising your pension savings, if that’s something you want to pursue.
Thanks to a new report from Legal & General surveying over 1,000 millennials across the country, there’s new insights into how prepared millennials are feeling about the latter years of their lives.
The nation’s millennials are split on feeling prepared for retirement, with roughly 50 per cent having a plan, while 49 per cent do not for their twilight.
For Londoners, that figure rises to 61 per cent for those who do have a plan, highlighting that the capital’s millennials feel more prepared on average than the country as a whole.
Indeed, 80 per cent of Londoners aged between 28 and 44 years old said that having a clear financial plan for retirement is a priority, compared to 70 per cent for the rest of the UK.
Three-quarters of Londoner millennials feel confident that they will be able to save enough money for a comfortable retirement – a sentiment felt most strongly by the youngest cohort between 28 and 33 years old.
However, nearly two-thirds of London’s millennial population are concerned about the prospect of having to return to work after retirement.
That fear is not entirely unfounded, either. More than two-thirds of Londoners who were surveyed have friends or relatives who have been forced to return to work after retiring to support themselves financially.
With property ownership feeling like a distant dream for many millennials, having a secure financial plan for your retirement is vital – and there’s no time like the present to take action and start saving.
Katharine Photiou, Managing Director of L&G’s Workplace Saving Business said: ”It's clear that while millennials are worried about their financial future, many are still letting valuable saving opportunities ‘slide away’.
“With nearly half admitting they do not have a retirement plan, and a significant number not knowing their pension contributions, there's a real disconnect between concern and action, although Londoners are slightly ahead of the curb with three in five saying they have a plan in place for retirement.
"To avoid looking back in anger, the message is simple: if you can afford it, start as early as possible. The earlier you start saving into your workplace pension, the harder your money can work for you and the more help you’ll get from the government in tax release and your employer through their contributions. While retirement might seem like a long way off, start saving early and you’ll see a huge difference.”
