NEWSWIRE
- Deloitte is shifting away from diversity groups: The company is phasing out its women’s initiative and ending a support service for gay employees. Rather than marking a progress reversal, these efforts are designed to appeal to Millennials who want everyone, not just certain groups, to be included. (Bloomberg Business)
- NH: So-called "employee resource groups"--affinity groups for genders, races, ethnicities, disablities, etc.--made their big debut in corporate America during the 1970s. The young Boomers who joined them then are the diversity HR leaders of today. Millennials like the idea of empowering minorities, but--in sharp contrast to those now in power--want everybody to join. They dislike balkanizing the workplace with minorities-only membership. I'm often invited by HR departments to speak at corporations, so I see this difference of opinion firsthand. With older generations, it's about group recognition. With Millennials, it's about mainstreaming.
- Only 32% of 38- to 52-year-olds believe that they will reach their long-term financial goals, the lowest share of any age group. Although Xers have plenty of time to grow their net worth, this glass-half-empty generation was indeed hit particularly hard by the financial crisis. (FICO)
- NH: Xers have a darker view of their prospects than both the generations before them and the generations after them. Wow. But this is not just perception. As we have often written, the facts show that Xers have indeed undersaved and will require a substantial hike in their personal savings rate (and better luck in their investment ROR) to be as prepared for retirement as their parents were.
- Just 4% of U.S. consumers say they order groceries online at least once per week. There are some products (groceries included) that consumers would just rather buy in person—which explains why Amazon paid a premium to get into the brick-and-mortar grocery game. (Gallup)
- New research shows that Americans over age 65 are underreporting their annual income by roughly one-quarter because many fail to take their retirement income into account. Already far better off financially than younger generations, the Silent also have access to cushy defined-benefit pension plans that are further boosting their net worth. (U.S. Census Bureau)
- NH: This is not a new discovery. Using tax data, I wrote in The Atlantic back in 1992 ("The Next New Deal") about how much the elderly underreport their income on Census surveys. What's interesting here is that the Census itself is confessing to the problem--and admitting that it's big. Once all DC and DB pension income is accounted for, the elder poverty rate (already the lowest of all age groups) falls by another third. The 65+ median income rises from $34K to $44K (in 2012). And the share of all elders who rely on Social Security for at least 90% of their cash income declines from 36% to 18%. At some point, when Congress is compelled (no doubt unwillingly) to focus on long-term fiscal choices, these new numbers will be on the table.
- Contributor Prashant Gopal argues that Baby Boomers who refuse to sell their homes are dominating the housing market. He makes a point: Unlike previous generations of elders, Boomers are aging in place rather than heading to senior facilities—which leaves many would-be Millennial homebuyers out in the cold. (Bloomberg Business)
- NH: Unfortunately, the coastal urban enclaves in which housing inventory is so tight also feature tax policies (like California's Prop 13) that lock seniors in and the most restrictive zoning laws that block new housing supply. Rising prices serve to further boost support among current owner-residents for more NIMBYism. One creative way out of this vicious cycle: pairing Millennial renters with Boomer owners in a co-living arrangement. (See our Newswire: "Report Tells Millennials to Get a 'Boom-Mate.'")
- Cord-cutting Millennials have discovered a new way to avoid cable: TV antennas. As it turns out, the generation that has grown accustomed to free entertainment has debunked the persistent myth that “rabbit ears” don’t pick up broadcast TV signals anymore. (The Wall Street Journal)
- NH: Fascinating how many Millennials, when first told about rabbit ears, think it must be some illegal scam. Watch the TV networks for free? All I have to do is watch the ads? No way!
- Bank of America has become the last of the four largest U.S. credit card issuers to enter the premium rewards card market. As the deals get better for consumers, some experts are worried that the hot credit card market may be close to boiling over. (The Wall Street Journal)
- A new survey shows that Millennial women trail their male peers in most measures of financial health, from financial satisfaction to debt levels. Millennial women’s higher educational attainment relative to men means that more are saddled with massive student loan debt—yet a lack of pay equity limits their ability to pay down this debt. (LendingTree)
- Psychology professor Jean Twenge writes that smartphones and social media have made Homelanders a sheltered, mentally fragile bunch. While this dire piece leans heavily on the negative effects of tech, it’s true that Homelanders are an inward-focused generation that may be susceptible to mental health issues borne from digital immersion. (The Atlantic)
- NH: I have often crossed swords with Twenge in print and on the air about her obsessively dire depiction of Millennials. To some degree, readers see more of the same in her depiction of Homelanders. She harps gratuitously on the negative. I had to laugh at her astonishment that kids go to bed with their phones. Who doesn't these days? She points out that the teen suicide rate has recently been rising and that it is now higher than the teen murder rate. But here is what does she not point out: (a) the teen suicide rate is still much lower today than it was (in the late 80 and early 90s) when Xers were teens; and (b) the crossing of these two lines is almost entirely due to the dramatic decline of the teen murder rate--not to the rise in the teen suicide rate. Still, pathologies aside, Twenge basically agrees with our depiction of the Homelanders as sensitive, risk averse, and family oriented.
- Traditional real estate developers in New York City are getting into the co-living business. This is a smart move: Most Millennials don’t mind sharing spaces and love the idea of a built-in community—particularly if it saves them a few bucks. (The Wall Street Journal)
DID YOU KNOW?
Rock-a-Bye for Everyone. We’ve written before about how America’s growing sleep deficit has created an entire cottage industry centered on getting shuteye. (See: “Losing (and Finding) Sleep.”) Now, some entrepreneurs believe they have the answer: adult bedtime stories. Enter Ben Holden’s Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups, an anthology of relaxing stories, poems, and fairytales penned by some of history’s best-known authors such as Walt Whitman and William Shakespeare. Don’t want paperback? You can try the meditation app Calm, which recently added a Sleep Stories feature that plays audio snippets of tales read by celebrities. For those worried that the stories will be too engaging for bedtime, Drew Ackerman has a unique solution: a podcast intentionally designed to be boring. Ackerman’s original series, called “Sleep With Me,” has 2.3 million monthly downloads as of January 2017. Ackerman, himself an insomniac, says that his app helps soothe the unrelenting anxiety that many insomniacs experience—a selling point for stressed-out Millennials. (See: “The Young and the Anxious.”)
