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Most millennials define financial success as being debt-free.
Some people might equate financial success with how rich they are, but that's not the case with most millennials and Gen Z.
According to a recent report by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, which surveyed over 2,700 Americans aged 18 to 34, only 19% of respondents defined financial success as being rich - 60% defined it as being debt-free.
"Freedom from debt seems a low bar of accomplishment, yet it's an elusive goal for many early adults," states the report.
According to the report, 81% of early adult households carry nearly $2 trillion in debt, including car loans and mortgage, but mainly student loan debt and credit card debt. Those who carry the latter have an average balance of $3,700, and more than half said they're struggling to pay it off.
Meanwhile, college tuition has more than doubled since the 1980s. As a result, student loan debt has reached record levels - the national total student debt is over $1.5 trillion and the average student loan debt per graduating student in 2018 who took out loans is $29,800, according to Student Loan Hero.
The financial repercussions of this are hitting hard. According to the report, 36% of college graduates currently paying off loans said the debt wasn't worth it. An INSIDER and Morning Consult survey found a similar sentiment - nearly half of indebted millennial respondents think college wasn't worth taking out student loans.
Read more: Nearly half of indebted millennials say college wasn't worth it, and the reason why is obvious
"Student debt is having major ripple effects on early adults' futures, financially and personally," states the report. "Four-hundred-thousand early adults who would have purchased a home a decade ago have not been able to afford one due to student debt, and today's early adults take finances into greater consideration in deciding whether and when to have a child than those in past generations. The ripple even reaches retirement years - indebted graduates are contributing only about half the amount to their 401(k)s compared to those without debt."
Retirement is a particular problem for older millennials, who graduated from college and entered the workforce during the Great Recession. A tough job market and wage stagnation made it increasingly difficult to pay off student loan debt, Jason Dorsey, a consultant, researcher of millennials, and president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, previously told Business Insider.
Consequently, they weren't able to accumulate the amount of wealth they hoped to. "Older millennials are often realizing they're going to have to play catch-up with their finances if they want to ever be able to retire, but some of them have already decided that they likely will not ever be able to afford to retire," Dorsey said.
While Richard Vedder, author and distinguished professor emeritus of economics at Ohio University, previously told Business Insider that the rising cost of college has made a degree less advantageous than it was 10 years ago, the report stated that a bachelor's degree is estimated to help the average person add $1 million to their lifetime earnings.
The question that now remains to be seen is just how much of that money will be spent paying off the debt that helped them obtain the degree.
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