A January survey from JPMorgan Asset Management found that nearly half of Gen Z respondents are putting vacations ahead of retirement savings. Among workers ages 18 to 29, that tendency was the strongest in the report, even as many also said they were trying to cover student loans and emergency funds first.
The timing matters because the survey, fielded online with more than 2000 people who had contributed to defined contribution retirement plans, points to a saving pattern that is already under strain. A majority of those surveyed said they are not contributing as much as they should to their employer-provided retirement plans, suggesting the problem is not limited to younger workers or to one spending choice.
Alyson Frost, speaking for JPMorgan Asset Management, tied the behavior to a mix of urgency and distance. Debt can feel immediate, retirement can feel far away, and starting early is harder to value when everyday bills are pressing. She also said higher prices and inflation are creating a real budget squeeze that is spilling from day-to-day spending into retirement behavior.
That squeeze shows up across age groups. More than half of workers said they would put emergency savings ahead of retirement if they had to choose, roughly 3 in 10 would pay off education debt or other debt first, and a similar share would save for vacations before retirement. One in 10 said higher living expenses have already forced them to reduce retirement contributions or stop them altogether.
There is also a sharper leak in the system: 1 in 4 participants have taken a loan or early withdrawal from their retirement plan, and another 19% are planning to do so. The main reason was unexpected expenses, but the list did not stop there. Home purchases, credit card debt, helping a family member and healthcare costs also pushed people to tap money meant for later.
Frost described that as an intention gap paired with real-world constraints. More than half of respondents do not know how much they need to save each year to retire securely, and more than half do not know how to estimate what their savings could become at current contribution rates. In that gap, vacation spending is only one visible choice; the deeper story is that many workers are making short-term trade-offs without a clear long-term target.
The unanswered question is not whether pressure exists. It is how much more it will take before workers start raising retirement contributions instead of treating the plan as a reserve for the next bill. Until that changes, the survey points to a retirement system where today’s expenses keep winning and tomorrow’s savings keep getting postponed.
