The Changing Face of Retirement: The Young, Pragmatic, and Penniless Generation

Today’s twentysomethings are young but hardly carefree. At a time in life when previous generations built a career and laid the foundations for a secure future, many of today’s younger workers face unprecedented financial challenges.

Student debt, uncertain employment prospects, high housing costs, the potential support of elderly parents, and the retreat of governments from retirement provision are just a few of the economic and financial uncertainties that undermine their ability to plan and save for their retirement.

The Young, Pragmatic and Penniless Generation is a research report based on a survey of workers aged 20 to 29 in 2013 in 12 countries: Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries were selected on the basis of having distinctive retirement systems, as well as varying demographic and aging trends. The research is a collaboration between Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and Aegon.