For some millennials, the reality of their retirement plans is that they’re a fantasy

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Retirement math

For some millennials, the reality of their retirement plans is that they’re a fantasy.

A new survey shows the significant gap between how much millennials expect they need to retire ($1.7 million) and what they’ve roughly saved so far ($63,000), write Business Insider’s Jacob Zinkula and William Edwards.

It’s not the first time we’ve gotten troubling data about millennials’ retirement plans. A 2022 Census Bureau survey found only 62% of Americans between the ages of 35 and 44 had a retirement account.

But it’s not just a lack of savings working against millennials’ plans of riding off into the retirement sunset.

Owning a home has proved elusive for the group, with some deeming themselves “forever renters.” But forgoing homeownership could eventually pose serious problems, as millennials won’t have home equity they could cash out to put toward their retirement.

Meanwhile, student loans are the gift that keeps on giving… pain. A new student-loan forgiveness plan could bring more relief, but it won’t be without its detractors.

And if you’re hoping for a Hail Mary in the form of a fat inheritance to jumpstart your retirement plans, that’s not looking great either. The rising cost of end-of-life care, coupled with people living longer, means your parent’s money will be long gone before you can get your hands on it.

Retirement concerns aren’t bound to certain economic classes.

Obviously, people struggling to put food on the table or keep a roof over their heads don’t have the luxury of saving for retirement.

But even those further up the economic totem pole aren’t necessarily saving for the future. High income doesn’t always equate to financial security.

The problem isn’t just saving money. It’s also not knowing when enough is enough.

Pop quiz: How long are you going to live for?

I don’t mean to be so crass, but that’s something to consider when saving for retirement. And with advancements in medicine, that timeline could get stretched longer than expected. So much for “live long and prosper.”

If all this isn’t terrifying enough — writing today’s newsletter sent me nervously checking my retirement accounts a few times — millennials get a preview of how bad things can be. Many peak boomers are entering retirement woefully unprepared.

But there is a bright side! Maybe retirement kind of stinks?

People keen to get there quickly — financial independence, retire early — are finding themselves working again.

3 things in markets

1. OpenAI is coming for Wall Street. GPT-4 is already better than humans at analyzing financial statements, according to a new study. The model was also able to beat the market with its trading strategies.
2. Yes, interest-rate hikes are still on the table. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said another surprise from the economic data could have the central bank raising rates again. It shows how, despite the market’s eager anticipation, the Fed isn’t in a rush to lower rates.
3. The stock market rally isn’t over just yet. That’s according to UBS, which raised its price target for the S&P 500 from 5,400 to 5,600 points on Tuesday. Diminishing recession risk and strong earnings growth will power the benchmark index higher, the Swiss bank said.

3 things in tech

1. Sam Altman is pledging to give away most of his wealth after a tough few weeks. The OpenAI CEO and his partner, Oliver Mulherin, are the latest to sign the Giving Pledge, joining a high-profile list of tech billionaires. The announcement follows recent exits from OpenAI’s safety team and a dispute with Scarlett Johansson that brought scrutiny against Altman.
2. Google is cleaning up its new AI search feature. Some of the odd answers AI Overviews has been known to spit out — like putting glue on pizza — are being disabled. A Google spokesperson previously told BI the answers were “generally very uncommon queries and aren’t representative of most people’s experiences.”
3. The rich get richer. Seven US tech billionaires have enjoyed a $230 billion surge in wealth this year thanks to the AI-powered stock market rally. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang has led the charge, with his personal fortune jumping by over $50 billion in 2024.

3 things in business

1. Denmark has a solution for America’s broken housing market. Millions of Americans are stuck in their homes to avoid taking on a high mortgage rate. But America could solve the lock-in effect if it followed Denmark’s lead incentivizing homeowners to trade in their low rates for a more expensive ones.
2. Adam Neumann has given up on WeWork. Neumann, who cofounded WeWork, told BI the company is “emerging from bankruptcy with a plan that appears unrealistic and unlikely to succeed.” The bankruptcy deal, which cut Neumann out of the equation, includes $450 million in equity funding and plans to wipe away billions of debt.
3. It was a rough Memorial Day weekend for Hollywood. Moviegoing has been in decline since the early 2000s – because there’s just no way around the internet and the competition it provides for everything, BI’s Peter Kafka writes.

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The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, editor, in London. George Glover, reporter, in London.