Most articles about millennials focus on how they’re messing up — how they’re suffocated by student debt, how they’re spending frivolously, and how they’re behind on major life milestones like buying a home.
But don’t buy into all the gloom and doom. In this Associated Press article, which also appeared in the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, The Humphreys Group Financial Planner Hallie Kraus, CFP®, CRPC®, says it’s time millennials got the credit they deserve.
“Millennials were given a front-row seat to the financial crisis,” Kraus said. “Many of us witnessed our parents struggle to pay the bills after getting laid off or suddenly finding their home underwater. Through these experiences, we were taught a unique set of lessons about money that are actually serving us well.”
Here are just a few ways millennials, a group that today reaches from their mid-20s to nearly 40, are getting it right when it comes to their finances:
- They know their worth. A 2018 report from Bank of America found that millennials were far more likely to ask for a raise than those in other generations. And when millennials made the ask, they got paid.
- They’re saving for retirement, early. Among millennials who are saving (73 percent), 3 of 4 are putting money away for retirement, according to a 2020 report from Bank of America.
- They’re focused on credit. Nearly 40 percent of millennials improved their credit score in the past year, according to Bank of America’s 2020 survey.
Read the full Associated Press article “Millennial Money: 3 financial moves that deserve more credit” here.
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