Table of Contents
- The Emerging Millennial Wealth Gap: Opening Note
- Building Ladders of Success for the Rising Millennial Generation: An Initiative Funded by the Citi Foundation
- Part 1: Generational Wealth and Financial Health
- Framing the Millennial Wealth Gap: Demographic Realities and Divergent Trajectories
- Trends, Origins, and Implications of the Millennial Wealth Gap
- The Millennial Racial Wealth Gap
- The Young and (Economically) Restless: The Nature of Work for American Millennials
- The Financial Lives of Millennials: Evidence from the U.S. Financial Health Pulse
- Part 2: Components of the Millennial Balance Sheet: Assets and Liabilities
- Wealth and the Credit Health of Young Millennials
- Millennials and Student Loans: Rising Debts and Disparities
- Young Adults and Consumer Debt: The Quiet Crisis Next Time
- Homeownership and Living Arrangements among Millennials: New Sources of Wealth Inequality and What to Do about It
- Part 3: Implications for Social Policy
- Public Policy Implications of the Millennial Wealth Gap
- Addressing the $1.5 Trillion in Federal Student Loan Debt
- Policy Responses to the Millennial Wealth Gap: Repairing the Balance Sheet and Creating New Pathways to Progress
Building Ladders of Success for the Rising Millennial Generation: An Initiative Funded by the Citi Foundation
Julie Hodgson
Young people today face a number of significant challenges as they strive to achieve financial security. Stagnant incomes, extended periods of unemployment, rising student debt, and scarcity of affordable housing have created conditions that make the transition to adulthood much more difficult. The youth unemployment rate is three times higher than that of adults, and the widening income gap continues to threaten the financial stability of this rising generation.1 Allowing economically disadvantaged young people to grow into economically disadvantaged adults contributes to a destructive cycle that hinders the growth of communities, cities, and economies. Yet, despite these realities, we know that young people are optimistic, entrepreneurial, and realistic about what they need to succeed.2
For this and coming generations to thrive, young people need to be able to access tools, resources, and networks to navigate the obstacles presented by our contemporary economy. Over the last several decades, the Citi Foundation has focused its resources on supporting interventions that were considered traditional pathways to success. Specifically, efforts to increase post-secondary degree attainment, promote homeownership, and help individuals adopt positive financial behaviors can be beneficial when they lead to reduced levels of debt and higher levels of short- and long-term savings. While we still believe that these asset-building approaches are key milestones, my colleagues and I increasingly recognize that today’s youth face greater uncertainty about their future than prior generations. Career trajectories have been altered, definitions of success have changed, and even the decision of when and if to start a family has been impacted. For many of today’s youth, the pathway to success is far from linear.
As part of our Pathways to Progress initiative, the Citi Foundation is investing in innovative interventions to help young people pursue their career and economic ambitions by connecting them with on-ramps to opportunity. In 2017, the Citi Foundation announced its largest philanthropic commitment with the global expansion of Pathways to Progress to continue our efforts tackling youth unemployment beyond the U.S. By 2020, we will have invested $150 million to impact the lives of 600,000 youth globally.
As part of our commitment, the Citi Foundation partnered with New America to further the knowledge and dialogue on the issues facing young people in the U.S. today. We believe that the magnitude and complexity of these challenges have implications for us all and require a holistic, multi-sector response. Government, corporations, civic leaders, and young people need to continue working together not only to better understand the unique challenges facing Millennials and Generation Z, but also to collectively charter a productive path forward. In response, we supported a convening in the spring of 2019 at New America that brought together a diverse group of policymakers, thought leaders, practitioners, and philanthropists to discuss the issues at hand, share knowledge, and engage in a solutions-oriented conversation on how the country can ensure access to opportunity and upward mobility for future generations. It was an enlightening and dynamic day of discussion.
Many of the themes raised in conversations from this convening are reflected in the essays that follow. Our hope is that the ideas set forth here will help spark your own thinking, and prompt us all to further evaluate how we can better support today’s youth. Ultimately, it will require the strengthening of the entire youth-serving ecosystem to ensure that young people have what they need to rise above the challenges they face and create opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Finally, we want to thank New America, and namely Reid Cramer, for partnering with us on this journey and assembling the insightful essays that follow. Taken together, these pieces make a valuable contribution in helping to illuminate the obstacles that exist for young people today, and also clarifying what is needed to build accessible ladders of success. All of us have a stake in creating new pathways to progress that enable the rising generations to pursue their dreams.