“Student debt is not only affecting millennials who are stressed about their finances and distracted by money issues when they are at work,” writes Sheryl Smolkin in an excellent piece for employeebenefitadviser.com headlined .Student debt has multi-generational impact on financial wellness. “Outstanding student loans are also affecting baby boomers who may be helping their kids to pay down balances owing instead of saving enough money to fund their own retirement.” Other excerpts from the article:
“A new study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that for the fifth year in a row, employees say their top two financial concerns are not having enough emergency savings for unexpected expenses (55%) and not being able to retire when they want to (37%).
“However, millennials – who in 2015 surpassed Gen X to become the largest share of the U.S. workforce – tend to be in worse shape than their older counterparts. Nearly half of the full-time employed millennials surveyed find it difficult to meet their household expenses. Forty-two percent of millennial employees have student loans and 79% reported that their student loans have a moderate or significant impact on their other financial goals
“In addition, more than one in four of all employees (37% of millennials) report that personal finance issues have been a distraction at work (up from 20% last year) and 46% of those who are distracted by their finances at work say that they spend three hours or more a week thinking about or dealing with personal finance issues on the job.
“Millennials with student loans disclosed they are consistently stressed about their finances (81% of millennials vs. 46% of all employees), carry credit card balances (72% of millennials vs. 46% of all employees) and use credit cards to pay for monthly necessities because they are unable to afford them otherwise (41% of millennials vs. 27% of all employees).”