TIAA-CREF Institute | February 2014
Summary: They are young, tech savvy, and confident; diverse, connected, and idealistic. And, they face a host of financial challenges. We’re talking, of course, about Gen Y, represented by the 2,124 college-educated respondents age 23 to 35 who took part in the 2012 National Financial Capability Study. To understand this group’s personal finances and financial-management practices, Annamaria Lusardi and Carlo de Bassa Scheresberg of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, The George Washington University, and Paul Yakoboski, senior economist at the TIAA-CREF Institute, took a close look at the study’s data set. They found a generation confident in its financial prowess, but burdened by debt and engaged in potentially costly behavior.