Retirement planning is not often a popular topic among younger workers as they are usually more concerned with spending the fruits if their newfound labors than saving for decades down the road. One particularly ignored area is the funding of a 401(k) after switching jobs. Most young workers opt to cash out their plans when they change jobs rather than rolling over the money into a new account. As a result, billions of retirement dollars per year are being lost in no small part because it is easier to cash out than to figure out a new place to park the cash. Proposals have been put forward to allow for auto-portability which some hope will increase the number of Millennials who opt to keep the money invested with one estimate showing a 2/3 drop in withdraws after leaving a job. In any event, young workers need to be educated about the realities of retirement so they know that Social Security alone will not likely support their lifestyle and that additional savings will be needed.
See Ashlea Ebeling, How Millennials Are Sabotaging Their Retirement, Forbes, May 13, 2016.
