Millennials can't afford to retire

Compared to baby boomers, retirement is irrelevant to many millennials. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Brook Turner is CEO of Zeal Education Trust.

If you ask any young person about their prospects for retirement, I imagine you would get the same response they giving to housing. It is simply out of reach.

The millennials simply don't believe in retirement. They can't afford to. They are too busy paying exorbitant rents to baby boomer landlords that are sitting pretty in the twilight of their careers. Or they are living at home paying off student loans that have crippled any short term dreams of buying their first home.

The only foreseeable future for millennials is one of working for survival.

After all, this generation is caught in the greatest vocational transition in over 100 years. They are in the midst of the technology revolution, and similar to the industrial revolution, this monumental shift in the way we approach work is having a huge effect on their lives. One where even the best experts can't agree on what the future workforce looks like or where education should focus its attention.

So retirement is an irrelevant question.

There are a series of questions that come before that question. Ones like, "How do I educate myself for a life of four or five vocational transitions?" Or, "How do I pay back my student loan when rents are this high?" Or "How do I buy a house with my KiwiSaver savings when I live in a city where house prices rose by over $80,000 last year?"

The question of retirement is also preceded by other questions concerning the planet and global markets that cut deep in a young person's psyche.

For many youths their greatest concern for the future is not the retirement pad, but rather the state of the planet.

What kind of planet are we going to inherit when the baby boomers finally give up the positions of power globally?

Will it still be within reach to save our oceans, rivers, soil, fish life, rain forests, air etc?

Will the rich simply hand over their wealth to their 1 per cent offspring and continue to leave the majority of the world gasping for economic survival?

If so, we're screwed.

Is it any wonder, then, that the young spend their money on experiences in the here and now? I think if I was in their position I would do the same.