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Millennials and finance

10 November 2015

The article at a glance

Study by BNY Mellon and students from Cambridge Judge finds that millennials have a lack of awareness of the financial future that …

Study by BNY Mellon and students from Cambridge Judge finds that millennials have a lack of awareness of the financial future that awaits them, mostly due to a lack of information rather than a lack of interest.

Group of millenials
Many “milliennials” face a less comfortable retirement than their parents and grandparents, yet they are unaware of the realities of their financial future, according to a new study by BNY Mellon and a team of students from Cambridge Judge Business School.

The study said that this lack of awareness stems from a lack of education and information rather than a lack of interest, and urges financial services providers to engage more on financial matters with the millennial generation born between 1980 and 2000.

The research project – entitled Generation lost: engaging millennials with retirement saving – was unveiled today at an event in London.

Among other findings, the study found that 46 percent of millennials receive no information on financial matters through their workplace or educational establishment, and 51 percent estimate the size of the fund they will need for retirement by taking a “blind guess” rather than basing it on industry data.

The Cambridge Judge students who worked on the report were Paul Kelly, a member of the Master of Finance (MFin) class of 2014-2015, and Shreetama Datta, a member of the Cambridge MBA class of 2014-2015.

“High student debt, low job security and low global growth mean millennials face a different set of financial challenges than the baby boomers and Generation X,” said Paul. “It is therefore crucial that financial services providers understand how they can empower millennials to save for their retirement.”

A total of 1,253 millennials were surveyed between July and September 2015, from the US, UK, Brazil, Australia, Japan and the Netherlands.