Want to jolt your younger workers into contributing more to your company-sponsored retirement plans? Just show them this figure.
After looking at several studies, estimates and financial experts’ opinions, Robert Powell, USA Today’s retirement planning expert and editor of Retirement Weekly, is predicting that millennials will need upwards of $2.5 million saved to comfortably retire.
That estimate is for the youngest millennials — those born in the late 1990s.
The news isn’t quite as bleak for those born in the 1980s. Their retirement savings goal, according to Powell: $1.8M.
Why so much?
Here are the numbers behind the estimates.
Powell’s assuming millennials will need to live on between $30K and $40K annually in retirement (in today’s dollars).
Plus, a modest rate of inflation (2%) will make $1M of today’s dollars worth about $530K in 32 years, and roughly just $386K in 48 years.
You can see Powell’s breakdown in more detail here.
The bottom line is this: For today’s millennials to hit that $2.5M number in 48 years, Powell said they’d need to save about $1,000 per month — and that’s assuming there’s 5% growth on their investments annually. That’s a staggering amount that, most likely, your employees aren’t coming close to hitting.
Still, every little bit helps. And if these figures can encourage employees to increase their savings even a little, they’ve done their job.
