The twenty-somethings that comprise Generation Y are off to a rocky start. Businessweek.com reports that “unemployment among 19- to 24-year-olds stands at 15.3 percent vs. the overall rate of 9.5 percent.” That’s not good. Add to that, the fact that most of Gen Y will never hold a job that offers the kind of pension plans from which previous generations have benefitted.
Gen Y is "the first do-it-yourself retirement generation," says Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies in Los Angeles. But even the Gen Yers who have returned home after college are not big savers.
More and more investment firms are utilizing Social Media to reach this cash-strapped generation. Vanguard is using more blogs, a Facebook page and soon, Twitter. "It's how this younger generation learns," says Vanguard Chief Executive Officer William McNabb III. Charles Schwab, which began sending Twitter feeds in mid-June, has 277 followers. Compare that to Whole Foods Market which has over 1.8 million. Clearly, Gen Y is more interested in organic Ezekial bread than instruments to help invest their hard-earned dough, but Social Media is still a smart way to try to reach this demographic. Of course, there is always the iPhone attack. Fidelity, the nation's largest 401(k) administrator has recently launched an app for tracking retirement savings. Granted, not as cool as Foursquare or Ultimate Guitar.
Still, the best solution for Gen Yers who want to see a comfortable retirement is not some smart phone application or groovy, cool blog. It’s straight-up, old-fashioned advice. "The trick is to be incredibly disciplined about saving early," says Vanguard’s McNabb. So go run and post that. And happy saving.
