這一代美國人 存錢很難

這一代美國人 存錢很難

A Generation Trails In Accrual of Wealth

【By ANNIE LOWREY／馮克芸譯】

WASHINGTON — Pearl Brady has a stable job with good benefits and holds two degrees, a bachelor’s and a master’s. But , she has no savings.

“I’m in that extremely nervous category,” said Ms. Brady, 28, a New Yorker who works for a union. “I know how much money I’m going to be making for the near term. I hope in my 30s and 40s to be able to save, but I have no idea how. It’s scary.”

Ms. Brady has plenty of company. A new study from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit Washington research institution, finds that Ms. Brady and her American peers up to roughly age 40 have accrued less wealth than their parents did at the same age, even as the average wealth of Americans has doubled over the last quarter- century.

“In this country, the expectation is that every generation does better than the previous generation,” said Caroline Ratcliffe, an author of the study. “This is no longer the case.” The authors said the situation facing young Americans might be unprecedented.

A broad range of economic factors has conspired to suppress wealth-building for younger American workers . They are facing stagnant pay as well as a housing collapse and soaring student loan debt.

Ms. Brady earns about $ 1,800 a month in take-home pay. But she paid for her undergraduate and graduate education in part with loans, which cost her about $ 400 a month. She also pays about $ 500 a month in credit card debt.

Chuck Ross, 31, has a master’s in economics and at one point built up $ 12,000 in savings from investing. But he lives in Wichita , Kansas , where jobs in his field are few. He works at a chain restaurant and is struggling with $ 40,000 in student loans.

Strong and sustained job and wage growth would cure many of the ills facing younger workers, experts said. But their delayed or diminished wealth accumulation might still have a lasting impact on their finances.

The Urban Institute study is one of many to show something of a perfect storm of economic trends battering younger workers.

One is the collapse of the housing bubble. Young people who bought homes as prices started to decline in 2006 are often underwater on their mortgages today. But now that prices have fallen sharply and interest rates are remarkably low, Many other young adults are locked out of the market because credit standards are tougher.

A second major trend is the rise of student loan debt, which has continued to grow through the recession, sometimes saddling students with burdens that extend into six figures and might take decades to pay down. A study of Federal Reserve data by the Pew Research Center found that 40 percent of relatively young households had outstanding student debt as of 2010, up from 34 percent in 2007. The median balance among all households with student loan debt was more than $13,000. “I just don’t think about it,” said Mr. Ross, of his student loans.

Finally, younger workers have faced a brutal job market in the last half-decade. The unemployment rate is 7.8 percent for workers ages 25 to 34 and 5.5 percent for those ages 45 to 54.

For now, millions of younger workers are on their own. “We both had vanilla lower-middleto- middle-class lifestyles,” said Christopher Greer, a 32-yearold who works in astronomy and lives in Arizona , referring to himself and his girlfriend. “I’m not sure how that’s going to play out for us.”