Millennials confused after reading study that says 1 in 6 of them have $100,000 in savings

About a year ago, USA TODAY published a Bank of America study claiming that about one in six of all millennials in the United States had $100,000 stocked up in savings. Recently, the news story went viral and all us millennials can respond with is, "Say whaaaaaa?" Real millennials, you know, those outside of the cherrypicked few who participated in the research study, have come forward, confused and perhaps even shellshocked about the findings. Many of them claim that the study does not hold true in real life as they continue to be bogged down by student loans, escalating rents, and high consumer good prices.

The study derived that 16% of all millennials had savings of $100,000 or more in their bank accounts in 2018, which was double the amount of savings individuals in the same age group had in 2015. At the time, this finding defeated outdated and untrue stereotypes about millennials, who had been previously viewed as lazy, always complaining, and financially unintelligent. Andrew Plepler, global head of environmental, social and governance at Bank of America, stated, summarizing the study, "Despite stereotypes of Millennials as being foolish with money and not long-term planners, [they are actually behaving] quite responsibly... They deserve more credit. Millennials are actually doing better than you — and they — might think."

He continued, "Their financial habits have become more disciplined. They've built it into their lifestyles." Guess the millennials finally proved those baby boomers wrong, huh? Well, not quite. Upon reading about the study, millennials have begun to wonder where in the hell the Bank of America was even able to derive that number from. As most individuals in the millennial age group struggle with debt, planning and saving for retirement, or their career path in general, this was a shocking discovery, to say the least. When we've got thousands of dollars in student debt, why would we store all that good money for a rainy day? (Let's face it, every day after payday is pretty much a shitstorm, anyway.)

To Plepler's credit, he did point out that more millennials work in the "gig economy" than ever before. Therefore, he said, "These gig workers have to be more intentional about their savings. The findings of our survey are encouraging, however. Millennials are taking much more proactive steps around saving. But this is an issue we have to monitor." Yeah, how about you monitor the zero balance in my bank account? Listen, this study is, for the lack of a more suitable term that will not pass the censor board, hogwash. Bank of America only asked 1,500 individuals to participate in the study. Additionally, the margin of sampling error for national data is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. This may seem inconsequential, but it can matter. For everyone who sat around with five other friends and tried to decipher who was actually a secret billionaire (because, come on, having a $100,000 in savings is the millennial equivalent of being a billionaire), don't worry. We're all in the same financial distress hellhole after all.