As we are constantly reminded, San Francisco is an expensive place. So much so that even stereotypically wealthy tech workers can have trouble affording it. With that being said, the news that rich twenty and thirty-somethings fear they will never be able to afford retirement is enough to inspire some serious anxiety. According to the Business Times, 78 percent of Bay Area millennials with $250,000 or more in investible assets say that they will probably work through their retirement.
When even the relatively loaded among us foresee a future of never-ending wage slavery, what chance does the average Joe have? And this isn't just in San Francisco, with the publication noting that approximately 85 percent of that age group nationwide believes they will never be able to retire. Fun times!
Paul Granucci, a VP with Merrill Edge, says that some of those numbers can be explained away by the millennial generation's can-do attitude. It's not that rich tech workers don't think they can retire, he posits, it's that they just may never want to. “We have a pretty high concentration of tech workers here,” he said. “They see work probably as more integrated into who they are versus I-have-my-work-life-and-I-have-my-non-work-life."
If your job is your life, does retirement mean your life is over? And, if so, how depressing is that? But don't worry, as Granucci is quick to reassure us. "This isn’t necessarily a bad thing or a punitive thing or a ‘Gee, I’m never going to be able to retire.’ They may not want to and they may enjoy — specifically in this area — being at the vanguard of technology and everything that it brings.”
This of course assumes that 35 years from now the "tech sector," or whatever has replaced it by then, will feel like hiring 65-year-old workers. Which, considering age discrimination is totally not a thing, is probably a safe bet. Right?
Oh well, we can probably all just drive for Uber. Oh, wait. OK, well, at least we can all sell our appreciated homes and live off that windfall, yes? Oh, hmm, never mind.
Related: Report: Millennials Totally Screwed When It Comes To Buying Property