A TIAA study reveals that 57 percent of people surveyed say the way their parents prepared for retirement has affected their own behavior. (Photo: Shutterstock)

If they're confident and have a good financial outlook, the odds are that future retirees owe that to their parents' approach to retirement planning. And whether they have that outlook or not depends on which generation their parents belong to.

According to a TIAA survey, Americans who aren't confident about how financially secure their parents are in retirement (27 percent) are twice as likely not to be confident about their own retirement as those who are confident about their parents' retirement (72 percent, compared with 36 percent).

In fact, 57 percent say the way their parents prepared for retirement has affected their own behavior, with 61 percent who say that they do things differently with money to keep from making the same mistakes their parents made:

• 44 percent say they've stayed away from taking on significant debt
• 38 percent are cutting back on spending for nonessentials

“We've seen firsthand what the data shows: People who are concerned about their parents' financial well-being in retirement may be sacrificing their quality of life today out of concern for their own financial future,” Dan Keady, chief financial planning strategist at TIAA, is quoted saying in the report.

While 72 percent of millennials rate their parents' financial outlook as good to excellent, only 57 percent of GenXers and 58 percent of boomers (both of whom probably share the same attitudes as millennials' parents) regard their own financial outlook that highly.

And when it comes to how those older generations regard their own parents' retirement, they're definitely not that optimistic, with only 35 percent of GenXers and 26 percent of boomers saying their parents' financial outlook is very good or excellent.

And the further they look into the future, the less optimistic those older generations become, with just 47 percent of GenXers and 34 percent of boomers saying they're confident in their parents' current or future financial security, compared with 60 percent of millennials.

Their parents' example isn't one they choose to copy, either, with 39 percent of GenXers and 35 percent of boomers actually disagreeing that their parents' approach to saving and investing is admirable and one to emulate.

Yet only a quarter of millennials feel the same way.

That millennial overconfidence might come back to bite them in the end. Said Keady, “It is evident that people's financial habits and retirement planning are shaped by the experiences of their parents. The confidence that millennials have about their parents' finances may actually create a false sense of security, especially when individuals mistakenly believe they will receive an inheritance (and plan their finances around it) when their parents don't have the same plans or intention.”

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