​According to a recent study from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, the median retirement savings for millennials is $31,000.1 While that may be a good start, it’s well short of what many millennials will need to fund a long and enjoyable retirement.
 
Millennials will face a number of challenges that previous generations didn’t face. The first is longevity. Life expectancy continues to increase. The medical industry is rapidly developing new treatments, services and technologies. It’s possible that millennials will live longer than any previous generation. If so, that means they’ll have to fund more years of retirement, which means they’ll need more savings.
 
There’s also the fact that millennials have to shoulder much of the burden for funding their retirement. Previous generations could rely on employer pensions, but that’s a benefit that has largely disappeared. Social Security benefits could also be reduced in the future if the program’s funding issues aren’t resolved. Personal savings could likely be the primary income source for many millennials in retirement.

​Struggling to pay off your student loan debt? According to statistics from the Federal Reserve, Americans owe more than $1.4 trillion in student loan debt. That’s nearly double the amount Americans carry on credit cards. More than 40 percent of Americans have student loans, and 11 percent of them are in delinquent status on those obligations.1
 
If you’re dealing with student loans, you may not be focused on other financial goals such as retirement. If you have years or even decades until retirement, it may not seem like an urgent priority. Your student loans might consume much of your focus.
 
You could be making a big mistake by ignoring retirement, though. Retirement may be years away, but it’s also a sizable financial challenge. You may need to fund decades of living expenses in retirement. That kind of financial challenge requires a substantial amount of savings.