Millennials

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Listen up ladies because this one’s for you.

My friends get tired of hearing me preach this but I won’t stop: You Need To Be Saving For Your Future. At the very least that means saving for retirement. “But Emily I’m only 24, I don’t need to worry about that yet” Yes, you definitely do pal. Remember back in high school math when you slept through the lesson on compound interest? Basically, it means that when you put money away it earns a return right? Well if you take that return and continue to re-invest it, year after year your money grows at an increasing rate. Waiting even five years to start saving WILL cost you many thousands of dollars – like minimum 50K – That’s a whole year earlier you could retire!  Check out this calculator.

And guess what? As a woman it’s even more critical. We make less money than men, we live longer, we often leave the workforce for a while as caregivers, changes in marital status tend to cost women more than men, and we don’t trust financial institutions. Oh, and millennials as a whole are extremely risk averse. With all these factors going against us, we need to be saving as soon as possible and as smart as possible. First, here’s how we should think about the word risk when it comes to investing: it’s unsafe but necessary. You need to remember that with something like a 401K you’re going to be investing with it for decades. Therefore, a little (or a lot) of risk when you’re younger is not only a good thing, but a necessary one. As you age, you should move your investments into safer, less volatile investment vehicles. The recession in 2008 was scary but those who left their investments alone during that period are now enjoying higher returns than before the economy fell!

525bcb8c8df1791d60d1ea8ca09592285378b89228019f26fcc7278f2c012329Second, most employers will match some of what you contribute to your 401K. That’s FREE money. For example, my employer matches 75% of what I contribute up to 8%. Did I mention that’s FREE money? Plus, your contributions are tax deductible! So here’s your action item for today: start putting money into your 401K. Experts say that ideally you should be saving 10-15% of your income for retirement. I’d suggest that if you’re just beginning, you contribute enough to take full advantage of the company match. If that’s not feasible right now then do as much as you feel comfortable, even if that’s just 1%. You can step up the amount by a percentage every time you get a raise and you won’t even be able to tell. And to those of  us with loans, that’s not an excuse! While paying off loans is important, so is saving for the future that you worked so hard taking out those loans for! Seriously, one percent, you won’t even miss it.

 

 

In the Zone

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Like most people, I really like spending time in my comfort zone. I wake up at the same time (even on the weekends dammit), eat at the same restaurants, go to trivia every Tuesday night. My friends and I even joke about our #NoNewFriends rule.

After completing multiple internships, I graduated from Drake University in 2015 with a degree in marketing and started my first role with a financial services company in a marketing capacity soon thereafter. I recently moved to a new role within my company as a Client Service Associate in DB Combo. Meaning – I’ll be servicing retirement plans that have both a 401K and Pension component. Not a marketing role. Now, as someone who hates the unknown and thrives on familiarity, why did I think it was a good idea to take a role that’s not even in the same zip code as my comfort zone?

Being comfortable is one of the scariest places you can be because you stop taking risks and challenging yourself. I firmly believe that it’s impossible to grow from a place of comfort. You need to purposely put yourself in those situations that raise your stress level, give you some anxiety and push you a little bit.  I work hard to be a yes woman and try new things that will stretch me: I don’t play golf but I’m planning a charity tournament and recently I signed up for a workgroup with a bunch of IT people to learn about information security.

This new role is uncomfortable for me now, but I’m learning something new every day and being challenged constantly. It’s hard to leave what you’re used to but ultimately, you’ll be better off by choosing to step headlong into that discomfort. Who knows where it will take you!

Trying new things is difficult. If it weren’t, breaking out of your comfort zone would be easy and we’d do it all the time. I challenge you to get out of your comfort zone today. Sign up for that after work networking event, speak up in a meeting, apply for that job you’re not 100% qualified for… take a risk and put yourself out there!

Marketing to Millennials

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I am a millennial. We have also been referred to as Generation Y, the We generation, and Echo Boomers. Millennials are the group of Americans born between 1980 and the mid-2000s. We have surpassed the baby boomers to become the largest generation in the U.S., representing one-third of the total U.S. population in 2013. We have distinctly different behaviors, values and attitudes from previous generations. These behaviors, values and attitudes are something that marketers need to pay attention to.

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First, millennials are the most educated generation to date. About 61 percent of adult Millennials have attended college, whereas only 46 percent of the Baby Boomers did so. Thus, we are savvier than our baby boomer parents and won’t fall prey to marketing media blitzes. We actively tune out and ignore most traditional advertising. If brands want us to adopt their products/services they need to create relationships with us – relationships that are based upon more than just buying and selling. Millennials have the tendency to think we have the power to make brands succeed or fail, and why wouldn’t we? – just look at the Arab Spring movement. We want to engage with brands – 59% of millennials have “liked” a brand on Facebook and 40% subscribe to some sort of brand email. In order to connect with millennials brands need to create compelling and engaging content.

Second, going along with creating compelling content, brands who want to connect with millennials need to be all over social media. Millennials are a group that highly weights our purchasing decisions on the thoughts and shares of our peers. Twenty-five percent of millennials share online shopping content to our social networks; a rate of nearly four times that of the average user. We also share more content in general — twice as much as the average user. We spend the majority of our time on the internet on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Pinterest. Brands need to be on all of these sites and they need to differentiate the content they put out as well. If I follow a brand on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin I do not want to see the same exact post on all three sites. Brands can (and should) use social media to engage with their consumers. They can create great PR for themselves, and avoid major PR disasters simply by tweeting at consumers.

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Lastly, millennials are incredibly mobile. According to Nielsen data in the second-quarter 2014, 85% of Millennials aged 18-24 own devices and 86% aged 25-34 own them, an increase from 77% and 80%, respectively, in second-quarter 2013. We have grown up as the internet has and have always had technology at our fingertips. Brands need to be aware of this and connect with us as much on mobile as with all the other platforms. This means, responsive website design, geo-targeting, and swapping out banner ads for mobile ads.

Check out this quiz to see how “millennial” you are