Job-hopping Millennials are losing big on retirement savings,
a Fidelity analysis for CNNMoney reveals.
Many young workers are not staying in their jobs long enough to retain all the money employers contribute to their 401(k)s, Fidelity notes.
According to the analysis of nearly 500,000 people who left their job in the first nine months of 2013, a quarter left behind retirement savings, on average $1,710.
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While that might not sound like much, Fidelity's calculations suggest workers should not underestimate the real cost of small amounts.
If a worker leaves $1,700 in company matches three times early in her career, by retirement, that forfeited $5,100 could amount to a loss of up $36,000, CNNMoney reports.
Older workers are far less likely to shrug off such losses. More than a third of Millennials left behind an average 24 percent of their account balance after leaving their job compared to 11 percent of baby boomers who left money, according to Fidelity.
Baby boomers tend to stick with an employer for a median of nearly 14 years, while Millennials only stay on a job for approximately three years.
And according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America, a third of employers require workers to stay on the job at least five years to get their full match.
"Chronic job hopping could really sink your retirement savings," Meghan Murphy, a director at Fidelity, told CNNMoney.
Nevertheless, Millennials are looking for more from their jobs than a means to save for the golden years, research from Clark University psychologist Jeffrey Jensen Arnett shows.
For instance, 86 percent of Millennials want a career that does some good in the world, and 79 percent rank enjoying their job as more important than making money,
The Washington Post reported.
The Great Recession stunted Millennials' ability to job hop but research suggests young workers are itching for an opportunity to bounce from employer to employer. Once the labor market improves researchers expect Millennials to switch employers at least every two years, if not sooner, says The Post.
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