For Gen Z, saving for vacation tops retirement: JPM study

Nearly half of Gen Z folks are prioritizing vacations over their retirement savings, the highest of any age cohort, according to a new report from JPMorgan Asset Management.

Paying off student loans and cobbling together emergency funds are also far more important to them than saving for their future golden years.

"This may be due to limited understanding of the benefits of starting early (especially compounding) and more immediate financial pressures — debt feels urgent, and retirement can seem distant, making it easier to defer saving," Alyson Frost, head of retirement insights at JPMorgan Asset Management, told Yahoo Finance.

In January, the firm conducted online surveys with more than 2000 people who had contributed to their defined contribution retirement plans.

But before we shame these younger workers, know this problem runs deep for people of all ages.

A majority of those surveyed aren't kicking in as much as they should to their employer-provided retirement plans and know they should be doing more, according to the research.

When forced to make trade-offs between retirement savings and other goals, more than half of workers of all ages put building emergency savings over saving for retirement.

Roughly 3 in 10 place a higher priority on paying off education debt or general debt, while a similar share save for vacations more than for their golden years, the researchers found.

And 1 in 10 say higher living expenses have led to reduced retirement contributions — or none at all.

"This reflects both an intention gap and real-world constraints," Frost said. "Higher prices and inflation appear to be creating a real 'budget squeeze' effect that is spilling over from day‑to‑day spending into retirement behavior."

Not investing in your retirement account is troubling, but withdrawing money from it is potentially worse.

"Plan leakage remains high: 1 in 4 have taken a loan and/or early withdrawal, with another 19% planning to do so," Frost said.

"The persistence of loans/early withdrawals suggests many participants are using their retirement plan as a source of short-term liquidity, which can erode long-term outcomes."

The primary reason people are tapping their retirement savings is to cover unexpected expenses, followed by a home purchase, reducing credit card debt, helping a family member, and healthcare costs.

When you ask someone how much they think they need to have saved in order to retire comfortably, inevitably, they guess and say at least $1 million.

So it's not shocking that the researchers detected a notable lack of saving know-how.

More than half do not know how much they need to save each year to retire securely or how to estimate the future value of their retirement savings at their current contribution rates.