With many of their prime wage-earning years marred by recessions and an ongoing pandemic, millennials are exhausted — and their outlook on both near- and long-term finances is less than optimistic, according to a new survey. Indeed, 45% of millennials polled said that because of their financial situation, they feel like they will never have the things they want in life.

                By                    Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy

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The Morning Consult survey, “The State of Consumer Banking & Payments,” shows that millennials have experienced both an unprecedented recession and a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic during some of their formative career years, but not all have fared the same.

“If we look at baby boomers, this cohort didn’t use the internet in the same manner to learn about finances and when we look at Generation Z, they have a radically different approach to work ethic and finances. While Millennials are burdened with too much choice, factors such as accessibility and living situations still remain as barriers,” Pinto said.

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The survey finds that 30% of millennials say they are “completely” concerned that “the money I have or will save won’t last,” while 22% say they are “very” concerned. In addition, 24% of millennials say that their finances “always” control their life, while 22% say they often do. And 21% of them say they are “always” behind in their finances, while 17% say they are “often” behind concerning them.

In addition, with “financial well-being” scores below 45, millennials in rural areas — or with low incomes, or both — are distinctly worse-off than millennial men (broadly speaking, as a category), millennials in urban areas and millennials with higher incomes, whose scores are all several points higher, the survey notes. As for millennial women, they are only slightly above this threshold, with an average score of 45.19.

Motola added that millennial outcomes have a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time, with rural workers — particularly women — having a harder time finding financial stability.

“While they’re still a way off from retirement, many millennials will need policy and services to help them manage their circumstantially disadvantaged position,” he added.

The survey also notes that while millennials are more likely to report working toward any financial goal than the general population, their top goals aren’t long-term.

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Instead, they’re those that would help improve their immediate financial well-being, according to the survey.

Priorities for millennials include establishing an emergency fund (89%), creating and maintaining a budget (89%), and evening out their spending month to month (87%).