They say they’re serious about saving, but apparently they’re pretty easily distracted from objectives that lie far off in the future.

So says a new survey about millennials’ money habits, which found that while more than a third cited saving as their top priority, impulse buying waylaid them on the way to that goal. The survey, from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Ad Council, found that although 34 percent of millennials put saving ahead of living a healthy lifestyle (20 percent), paying off debt (19 percent), and losing weight (14 percent), that apparently only lasted until they met a potential purchase—and there were remarkably few purchases they didn’t like.

Sixty-five percent said their inability to save was thanks to impulse buying, despite the importance of some of the savings goals they’d set: saving for an emergency fund (40 percent), saving for retirement (22 percent) or starting a family (15 percent).

Even big savings goals such as a vacation (36 percent), a new house (27 percent), a car (26 percent), home improvements (20 percent) or a wedding (8 percent) apparently aren’t enough to keep their eyes focused on longer-range plans. Retirement? Hah. A distant blip on the horizon when compared with the lure of some little tchotchke that catches their eye.

More than half (55 percent) of millennials surveyed admitted that they were impulse shoppers, defined as making an unplanned purchase of $30 or more on a daily or weekly basis. Impulse buyers are more likely than those who never or rarely make an impulse purchase to have carried a balance on their credit card (45 percent vs. 35 percent) and have paid a late or overdraft fee (31 percent vs. 21 percent).

But impulse buys aren’t the only culprits getting in the way of millennials’ saving efforts. Eighty-four percent pointed toward their current salary, having too many bills (81 percent), paying down debt (79 percent) and not establishing a personal budget (62 percent) as major obstacles to saving more.

And whatever the reason they’re not saving, nearly half (44 percent) of those surveyed did not pay their full credit card balance each month or borrowed money from friends or family. Forty-one percent had less than $100 in their checking account, 30 percent paid a late or overdraft fee, and 23 percent missed a bill payment.

Millennials’ troubled relationship with money and saving is hardly news, though; a Young Invincibles survey found that they do want to save—and sometimes do quite well at it — but the key to helping them do so, at least for retirement, according to a Vanguard paper, could lie in taking the matter out of their hands, such as via auto-enrollment.

And then there’s the dramatic approach from J.P. Morgan, which turned its research on millennials’ money habits into a “reality show” of sorts, to explore potential outcomes.

Instant Insights /

Impulse spending cripples millennials&rsquo; saving efforts

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Impulse spending cripples millennials’ saving efforts