What is it you most remember about yourself when you were in your twenties? Is it the bright enthusiasm of the wonders ahead? Perhaps it’s the memory of the newfound freedom you found?

Or maybe, if you’re like many of today’s twenty-somethings, it is the despair you faced every waking moment, wondering what would happen next, where was the money going to come from to pay the bills of real life, wishing you had it as easy as your parents must have had it.

Maybe today you’re wishing you would have done things a bit different in your twenties.

You’re thinking, instead of buying that cool looking fully loaded foreign made roadster, you should have opted for the plain vanilla K-car and banked the difference into your retirement account.

Wow. That few thousand dollar from that long ago would be worth tens of thousands in your retirement plan today (and even hundreds of thousands if had the luck of Mitt Romney).

Maybe what you’re thinking right now is the car you should have bought was that modified DeLorean ol’ Doc Brown outfitted with his flux capacitor. Yep, just a smidgen of time travel and your retirement savings problems evaporate.

Setting yourself aside, think about your children and grandchildren. The experts know the formula for their future retirement success (see “The #1 Retirement Saving Goal for People in Their 20s and the Most Useful Strategy to Get There,” FiduciaryNews.com, February 14, 2017). And while it’s easy to lead them to the formula, it’s less easy to get the typical 20-year old to drink from that formula.

Are you surprised? You were the same way back in the days of your own twenty-somethinghood.

Actually, if you’re reading this, and because you made the career choice you did, you probably didn’t make these same mistakes. Imagine your brother or sister or other close family member/friend who didn’t end up working in the financial services sector. They certainly made this mistake. How did they overcome it?

And the answer “They turned 30” is not acceptable.

Here’s my guess: gamification.

First, we must assume the subject is capable for being motivated. Some feel it’s simply impossible to stimulate someone in their twenties.

I, however, possess this naïve hope for mankind in general: I firmly believe there’s something in everyone that can excite them. The challenge is to discover this something and activate it to trigger some positive action.

That’s where gamification comes in. Of course this makes you think of “gaming” and you know that happens to be a favorite pastime among at least some subset of 20-year olds.

What I’m talking about, though, is not the specific act of gaming, but the concept behind it. Think of it this way, how is collecting coins like playing a game? For the answer, don’t think of the coins themselves; think of those heavy cardboard books with pre-cut holes for every coin ever minted within a specific set of years. What’s the first thing you do when you get that book? You get all you coins and start inserting them in those holes.

Then what happens? If you’re like most people, you run out of coins before you run out of holes.

And then what?

You promptly decide you don’t like all those holes and you pull out all the coins in your pocket searching for the ones that can fill in those holes.

That’s gamification. It’s finding yourself in a position where there’s a missing puzzle piece that urges you to find it.

Of course, in the case of coin collecting, we left out one important part – most kids don’t know there’s such a thing as collecting coins until grandma and/or grandpa give us that heavy cardboard book with all the holes in it. Once grandpa reveals what those holes are for, that’s when gamification kicks in.

How does this apply to 20-year olds? First, someone’s got to give them the heavy cardboard book that contains those holes. In other words, either their company automatically places them in a retirement plan or their parents set up IRAs for them.

Either way, some responsible adult gets them started.

For us seasoned elders, creating and enjoying the everyday pleasures of saving for retirement is a snap. For the average twenty-something, it represents an enormous obstacle. Make it easy for them. Give it them as a fait accompli – no assembly required.

Then tell them what those holes are there for.

And let the games begin!

Instant Insights /

Millennials & saving: Getting 20-year old horses to drink the water

More From HR Executive

Related Stories

Recommended For You