February 2020
Summary: Millennials (individuals age 18–37 in 2018) are the largest, most highly educated, and most diverse generation in U.S. history. Millennials are making financial decisions that will likely shape the future of the U.S. economy for the next 30 years, and they are doing so in an increasingly complex financial landscape.
In this study, we analyze data from the 2018 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) to obtain an in-depth picture of millennials’ current financial situation, behaviors, and knowledge, and we compare the state of their personal finances to that of older working-age adults (individuals age 38-64). Further, we compare the personal finances, money management behavior, and financial literacy of millennials to young adults in the same age range (18-37) in 2009, 2012 and 2015 by using data from previous waves of the NFCS.