‘The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them’

I recently stumbled across a provocative article in the New York Times with that intriguing headline.

Honestly, I laughed out loud (drawing my wife’s quizzical attention on an otherwise quiet Saturday morning) when I read it. I’m a (proud) Boomer, of course, and while Gen X basically slipped quietly into the workplace (much to their frustration), Millennials (to my experience) landed with a bang, upending traditional norms of business and meeting etiquette, demanding a voice that seemed well beyond their experience (and, yes, sometimes knowledge)—and, frustratingly (certainly for those of us who played by a different set of rules at their age), getting it. 

So the notion that they were now feeling the same kind of pressures from the next generation of workers (a.k.a. Gen Z) was somewhat humorous to me in a “so, how do you like it?” kind of way.  

Yes, having lived through the not-so-subtle eye-rolling of younger co-workers (and the more recent dismissive “OK, Boomer” commentary), I couldn’t help but find some small modicum of comfort in the notion that that generation was, essentially, being hoisted on its own generational “petard.” 

The problem—particularly for those of us who still want to be seen as “cool”[i]—is that those boundaries are fluid and moving. It’s hard to keep up when you’re not naturally immersed in the culture of the day—it takes effort and persistence, particularly in an era where you lack the opportunity of that interaction in a physical workplace. And, honestly, one’s own experience (and sometimes what we’d label “common sense”) sometimes dictates that those new “norms” are likely only a passing fad (and one that you’d look foolish embracing, regardless).

‘Kids These Days’

Comfortingly enough, the article goes on tell us that researchers call this the “kids these days” effect—and note it has been happening for millennia. Moreover, the author notes that this phenomenon means that “each new generation, christened by marketers and codified by workplace consultants selling tips on how to manage the mysterious youth, can strike the people who came just before them as uniquely self-focused.”[ii]

When I was new to this business, I would joke that nobody comes out of college with plans about retirement, much less thinking about working with retirement plans. And yet, if you’re reading this, odds are you find yourself in at least the latter category. 

That said—and while much is made of the need to communicate “differently” about retirement with younger workers (see “Is It Time to Retire Retirement?”)—it’s never been easy to garner the attention of the not-nearly-ready-for-retirement generation(s) to focus on the financial necessities of that day in the (distant?) future when they’ll need to live on… something. 

‘Different’ Perspectives

There’s little doubt that “retirement” will be different for the next generation—and that the preparations our industry has long espoused could stand some updating. After all, there’ll be no golden watch, almost certainly no pension (if they’ve toiled in the private sector), and as for Social Security? Well, who knows? On the other hand, odds are their labors won’t be stymied by physical limitations, limited by locale—or perhaps even a commute longer than the path from their bed to their couch. Indeed, their work may be such that it never has to—or perhaps gets to—end. And—not insignificantly—they’ll also likely have a longer lifespan over which to consider those alternatives.[iii]

Let’s face it: New generations have long been disruptive to the “status quo,” to the “normal” state of affairs, to the protocols to which we’ve all become accustomed and/or established. Inevitably, when it’s our turn in that cycle, the pace of change is annoyingly slow, the receptivity to new ideas mind-numbingly obtuse—and when our perspective is the status quo… well, we see things differently.   

And all that likely means that if there’s anything to “fear” about those newer to the workforce, it’s that they might make the same mistakes we did.

- Nevin E. Adams, JD

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[i] I’m sure that wanting to be seen as “cool” is probably no longer… 

[ii] And indeed, if there was ever a generation that was (once upon a time) dismissed by its elders as “uniquely self-focused,” it was mine.

[iii] They’ll also have some new tools to help—things like automatic enrollment, automatic escalation, target-date funds and managed accounts. 

Reference ‘Points’

Several years back, I was talking with a colleague about the current state of the U.S. economy – and as a comparison point, I pointed to the mid-1980s. “I wasn’t even born then,” she said. At which point I realized that what I considered to be a relevant point of comparison was, to my coworker, ancient history.

That memory comes back to me every year with the release of Beloit College’s annual “Mindset List.” As that coworker discussion reminds me, a lot can change in (just) 18 years, but these same 18 years also make up the mindset – or “event horizon” ­– of today’s entering college students.

The kids many of you just dropped off at college – the Class of 2022 – were (for the most part), born in 2000, the first year of the new millennium. The folks that compile this list know that those differences in experience and points of reference have an impact on the (perceived) relevance of the points we might try to make in college teaching – and even in terms of financial matters, saving, and, yes – retirement.

For example, those students that were just dropped off at college:

• Have always been able to refer to Wikipedia.
• Have always known a world where U.S. troops were stationed in Afghanistan.
• Will never fly TWA or Swissair airlines (much less Eastern Airlines or Piedmont Airlines).
• Have always seen Priuses on the highways.
• Have never used a spit bowl in a dentist’s office.
• Have never had to deal with “chads,” be they dimpled, hanging or pregnant.
• Have always used lightbulbs that were shatterproof.

When it comes to retirement, the Class of 2022 also stands to have a different perspective. For them:

• There have always been 401(k)s.
• There has always been a Roth option available to them (401(k), 403(b) or IRA).
• They’ve never had to sign up for their 401(k) plan (since, particularly among larger employers, their 401(k) automatically enrolls new hires).
• They may never have to make an investment choice in their 401(k) plan. (Their 401(k) has long had a QDIA default option to go with that auto-enroll feature.)
• They’ve always had access to target-date funds, managed accounts, or similar vehicle that automatically allocates (and, more significantly, re-allocates) their retirement investments.
• They’ve always had fee information available to them on their 401(k) statement. (It remains to be seen if they’ll understand it any better than their parents.)
• They’ve always been able to figure out how much they need to save for a financially secure retirement (though they may not be any more inclined to do so than their parents).
• They’ve always been able to view and transfer their balances online and on a daily basis (and so, of course, they mostly won’t).
• They’ve always worried that Social Security wouldn’t be available to pay benefits. (In that, they’re much like their parents at their age.)
• Many have never had to wait to be eligible to start saving in their 401(k). (Their parents typically had to wait a full year.)

Despite those differences, the class of 2022 will one day soon be faced with the same challenges of preparing for retirement as the rest of us. They’ll have to work through how much to save, how to invest those savings, what role Social Security will play, and – eventually – how and how fast to draw down those savings.

But perhaps most importantly, they’ll have the advantage of time, a full career to save and build, to save at higher rates, and to invest more efficiently and effectively.

And, with luck, have an advisor available to answer their questions along the way.

- Nevin E. Adams, JD

Generations ‘Grasp’

If you’re still struggling to figure out how to reach Millennials (even if you are a Millennial), take heart – there’s (already) another generational cohort entering the workforce.

This new cohort is called Generation Z (at one point, Millennials were referred to as Gen Y, so…) – they are, generally speaking, children of Gen X – born in the mid-1990s, and separated from Millennials by their lack of a memory of 9/11.

Gen Z is, in fact, already entering the workforce – and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, they currently comprise a quarter of the population. They are seen as being more “realistic” when it comes to life and working than Millennials, who have been characterized as more “optimistic.” Gen Z is said to be more independent and competitive in their work than the collaborative Millennials, more concerned with privacy (Snapchat versus Facebook), and are said to have a preference for communicating face-to-face. It’s said they’ll eschew racking up big college debt, and are said to be interested in multiple roles within a single employer, rather than multiple employers (role-hoppers versus job-hoppers). They have been called a generation of self-starters, self-learners and self-motivators – and they’ve never known a world without the Internet and a smartphone to bring it to their fingertips wherever they are.

Unlike previous generations, whose parents didn’t mention money or focus on financial topics with their kids, more than half (56%) of Gen Z have reportedly discussed saving money with their parents in the past six months. The result, according to researchers, is a young generation that “behaves more like Baby Boomers than Millennials,” is making plans to work during college, to avoid personal debt at all costs, and… to save for retirement. Indeed, 12% of Gen Z is already saving for retirement, according to a recent research report.

Behavior ‘Patterns’

Now, as different as individuals in various generational cohorts can be, I’ve never been inclined to assign those behavioral differences to their membership in any particular cohort. Rather, I think there are things that younger workers are inclined to do (or not do) that workers in every cohort were inclined to do (or avoid) when they were younger. Do Millennials change jobs more frequently than their elders? Sure. But they didn’t invent the phenomenon; for a variety of reasons, younger workers have long been more inclined (or able) to pull up stakes and seek new opportunities (American private sector job tenure has actually been remarkably and consistently “short” running all the way back to WWII). Similarly, younger workers tend to put off saving (certainly for something as far away and obscure in concept as retirement), and when they do start saving, tend to save less than their elders. This was true of the Boomers, of Gen X and Millennials, and – despite their more rapid savings start – will almost certainly be true of Gen Z, left to their own devices.

That last part is a potentially critical difference, of course, in that today plan design differences like automatic enrollment were a relative rarity when the Boomers were coming into the workplace. Some of it is that – at least supposedly – their parents didn’t need to save because they had defined benefit pension plans to secure their retirement. But, even for those who were covered by those plans (and most weren’t) – the DB promise was of little value at a time when 10-year cliff vesting and 8-year workplace tenures were the order of the day. Moreover, Boomers would typically have had to wait a year to start contributing to their DC plan when they entered the workforce.

Headlines tout today’s improved behaviors – more diversified investments, an earlier savings start, a greater awareness of the need to prepare for retirement – as evidence of refined education efforts, or a heightened awareness of the need to save by generations who are more attuned to financial realities. Those are indeed welcome and encouraging signs.

Still, it seems to me that many in these newer generational cohorts are – as are their elders – really the beneficiaries of innovative plan designs – things like target-date funds, as well as automatic enrollment and contribution acceleration, and a heightened focus on outcomes – developed to overcome the behavioral shortcomings of human beings – regardless of their generational cohort.

- Nevin E. Adams, JD