Young People Focusing on Careers, Not Retirement

Many twenty-somethings are more focused on obtaining a higher-paying, fulfilling career than they are on saving for retirement, The Wall Street Journal reports. They’re ignoring the mutual fund industry’s exhortations to start saving early, to take advantage of the power of compounding.

Brett Bisciotti, for example, is saving as much as he can from his job at a delicatessen with the hopes of one day buying it.

“If you’re not born with a silver spoon in your mouth and you want to make it, you gotta use the money you have now to go to the next level,” he reasons.

Jascha Ephraim, an aspiring music composer currently working part-time as a construction worker, said he cannot consider saving for retirement until he pays off student loans and credit-card debt from a concert tour.

“I have faith that if I put all my energy into doing what I love, I will be more successful than if I were doing something that makes more money now, but I hate,” Ephraim said.

For Kit Steven, retirement isn’t even a goal. “I don’t know what retirement is, or why people would do that,” said Steven, who runs two businesses that supply playground equipment for parks. “I’d like to spend any extra on business growth rather than retirement.”

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