Some Millennials and Gen Z have hit an 'apocalyptic' phase in which they don't see the point in saving for the future

• The New York Times reports that millennials and Gen Zers aren't saving for the future.
• Instead, they're spending on the now — from dinners out to new apartments to hobbies.

Between two recessions, a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, the climate crisis, and yet another new war, America's youngest adults have already experienced a lot of trauma — and a lot of economic tumult.

As people across the country have their own Great Realizations about work, the youngest workers seem to have decided that there's not much merit in saving up for an uncertain future. Instead, as Anna P. Kambhampaty reports for the New York Times, millennials and Gen Zers — roughly ages 26 to 41 — are spending money on things that bring meaning to their lives.

In fact, a Fidelity retirement planning survey of about 2,600 adults found that 45% of "next gen" — defined as 18 to 35-year-olds — "don't see a point in saving until things return to normal."

A grim economic outlook

For some Gen Zers, "normal" may be more of a vibe than something they've experienced. Just one subset of the generation has ever experienced what higher-education and work life were like in a pre-pandemic world.

And Millennials were already staring at a bleak economic picture pre-pandemic. In 2019, they were dealing with all-time-high student debt, reduced purchasing power, high-priced housing, and skyrocketing healthcare and childcare costs. While their ranks were large, their savings were low — much lower than boomers.

Then, came 2020. Gen Z was hit the hardest by the pandemic, with school, life, jobs, and dating all disrupted. Unemployment was high, and mental health was deteriorating. For millennials, it was yet another recession and road stop amidst 20 years of continual economic pummeling.

As a result, the young workers Kambhampaty spoke to said they were foregoing prudent saving to experience the meaning of life. For some, that was spending more out on dinners with friends or music festivals, or on the hobbies that spark joy. Others decided to toss aside their overly cautious old lives by relocating. If homeownership isn't an option — which it increasingly wasn't for at least a quarter of millennials — at least they could tap their savings for rentals in a dream city.

While job recovery has been robust — scarred millennials can take solace in the fact that the US is recovering far faster than it did from the Great Recession — that doesn't wipe out the myriad other problems facing the youngest workers.

Prices overall are still hovering near 41-year-highs. Pandemic rent deals are ending. While pay is on the rise, and Gen Z is driving the Great Reshuffle, many raises will still get eaten up by inflation.

And a climate crisis, to boot

Then there's the generations' existential attitude.

A UN report found that the world can still turn around climate change in the next 10 years — but it will require an immense amount of political action and funding. Without that action, climbing temperatures could imperil 3.6 billion people, according to the UN, with cities flooded, water scarce, and hunger on the rise.

That's something that's been top of mind for both millennials and Gen Z. A third of 18 to 29-year-olds polled by Insider in 2019 said that "climate change should be a factor in a couple's decision about whether to have children." Meanwhile, as boomers worried about inflation eating up how much they had saved up, Gen Zers were just as worried about climate change.

"If you have an apocalyptic vision of the future, why would you save for it?" Financial psychologist Brad Klontz told the New York Times. "Of course you wouldn't."

Considering all this, Nimarta Narang told the New York Times that finally getting to travel home to Bangkok showed her how much she had missed. She didn't want to miss out anymore — and relocated from Los Angeles to New York City, something she had "always wanted."

"I wanted to use my savings to have a life experience," Narang told the Times. "Visiting home made me see how much life I had missed."