British Boomer couples with a degree retire with SEVEN times more money than people who didn’t go to university, research shows
It’s a decision that many teens ponder for months.
But a new degree can serve as the encouragement your teen needs to apply to college.
Researchers at the University of Bath have discovered a huge discrepancy between the amount of money people who did and did not go to university retire with.
Baby boomers who didn’t go to university could retire with £360,000 to their name, according to the research.
However, couples who went to college are almost seven times more likely to retire.
The team write in their research: ‘The findings show that at ages 65-69, these couples have amassed £2.49 million in net wealth (at the median), almost seven times the level reported by their less educated counterparts .’
It’s a decision that many teens ponder for months. But a new degree can serve as the encouragement your teen needs to apply to college
In their research, the team, led by Dr. Ricky Kanabar, wanted to investigate the role education plays in how people choose their partners – and how much money they save.
The researchers focused on two main groups: “baby boomers” (people born between 1947 and 1953) and Generation X (people born between 1973 and 1979).
Using the Wealth and Assets Survey for Britain, the researchers found that by the time university-educated boomers reach their mid-60s, they have an average net worth of £2.49 million.
This is almost seven times higher than couples without formal qualifications.
“We see a clear difference in asset ownership, mainly due to differences in the speed at which housing and pension assets are built up,” the researchers said.
The researchers’ analysis also found that nearly a third of highly educated baby boomer couples reported receiving an inheritance by the time they reached their 50s.
In contrast, fewer than one in ten couples without formal education reported the same.
For those who did receive an inheritance, the average amount was £79,370.
Education level also appears to play a role in how much people leave to their own children
That’s 28 times greater than what couples without formal qualifications typically receive.
Education level also appears to play a role in how much people leave to their own children.
University-educated baby boomer couples said they planned to leave an inheritance of around £332,000 to their children – more than double the amount reported by couples with no formal qualifications.
“The disparity in accumulated wealth is reflected in couples’ inheritance intentions,” the researchers explained.
“Highly educated boomer couples are substantially more likely to report that they plan to leave assets to their heirs, and the size of the median intended inheritance is three times larger than that reported by less educated boomer couples.”
The researchers hope the findings will encourage further research into asset management in Britain.
‘Future research efforts should aim to formally parse the relative importance of factors such as inheritance and family background on the one hand and the individual’s own characteristics such as education, which is important for certain forms of capital accumulation such as housing and pension wealth in explaining intragenerational wealth inequality between cohorts and over time,” the researchers concluded.
‘Separately, as suitable data become available, research should seek to determine the relative contribution of changes in mating and education levels across cohorts and how this has affected the distribution of wealth ownership in Britain.’