Study shows millennials and Gen Z want experiences over traditional savings
According to a study conducted by financial group, Wealthsimple, millennials and Gen Z are prioritizing experiences and a better work-life balance over traditional notions of success like homeownership and retirement savings.
“They’re not looking at it in a linear fashion where you work and retire completely at 65. They’re really trying to strike a balance through their life enjoyment,” said Jennah Cornelissen, lead advisor at Wealthsimple.
The study found 78 per cent of millennials and Gen Z feel the concept of retirement needs to be modernized to better meet today’s realities. Instead of saving for homeownership, 57 per cent are prioritizing savings for travel.
Recent post-graduates Braydon Killen and Ian MacDonald said cost of living is part of the reason they do not save up for retirement.
“With the housing prices going up, I’ve been looking around and it’s just really wild how much they’ve gone up, so it’s kind of hard to put my mind towards that right now while I am young,” said MacDonald.
Killen believes the pandemic also attributed to the change in mindset of saving for the future.
“Because of the pandemic we were trapped for long so it makes you kind of want to live life again and get back out there.”
The study shows that while most are not saving for a house or retirement, 53 per cent hope to stop working before they turn 55-years old.
Cornelissen said many are considering other ways to get there.
“They’re turning to their portfolios and investing as a way to sort of bridge that gap. They’re really looking to use that to fill the gap when they eventually do stop working and no longer have employment income.”
According to the study, 47 per cent of Gen Z and Millennials see investing as a way to fulfill their ambition.
“Instead of prioritizing work through so many years and then you retire, they’re really looking at prioritizing other things and striking a better balance throughout their life, so really trying to find that financial freedom to do the things that they can enjoy,” said Cornelissen.
She said while it is difficult, it is not an impossible goal to achieve.
“Seeking the right financial advice that is also personalized for you is important. Prioritization becomes important because not all of us can do everything at the same time and so really sitting down and asked yourself what your key goals are and what’s most important to you makes the saving goals and use of portfolio a little bit easier.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.