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The generational conflict has only been growing fiercer and fiercer with the increased prevalence of certain groups in the media and politics. On one hand, baby boomers are accusing millennials of not wanting to work and being entitled, while millennials are accusing baby boomers of ruining the economy and generating the impossibly low wages and high school fees.
And while many people do indeed see millennials as being entitled, lazy, overly sensitive, and very immature people, it turns out that that might not actually be so accurate. According to a study performed at the behest of Bankrate.com, millennials are the generation best at saving money.
Savings, savings, savings
Released on Monday by New York based consumer financial services company Bankrate.com, the study shows that millennials are saving the most money among every age group. The data predicted a 29 percent increase in savings since last year, among multiple percentages of saved income.
More specifically, compared to 2015, 62 percent as opposed to 42 percent are saving more than five percent of their income, while 29 percent as opposed to 22 percent are saving more than ten percent of their salary. This is due to more than a single factor, but the average adult aged 35 and under isn’t as avid a consumer as his or her predecessor.
The Great Recession
Despite most millennials having come of age during the awful period that was the Great Recession, they didn’t really let that be a measure of how things should be. Instead, most learned their lessons from their predecessors’ follies and are doing their best to make as few of the same mistakes as possible.
Not only do they recognize the fact that their retirement savings will be entirely their responsibility, but most are doing their best to avoid any sort of debt, are untrusting of banks, have a far less consumerism-oriented focus, and they have a far greater inclination towards saving for the future.
More people are saving up
But even though millennials are apparently the best savers out there, they’re definitely not the only ones that have learned a lesson or two from the previous decade’s financial struggles. More Americans overall have been increasing their savings, showing that we are, as a nation, more prepared for the unforeseeable than we were before (as long as we’re talking about unforeseeable financial events).
From 2015, the overall number of Americans has grown from 24 to 28 percent this year. And this is happening across pretty much all income levels, with 27 percent of Americans that earn between $30,000 and $50,000 a year saving ten percent, and with 24 percent of those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year saving the same amount.
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