It’s a decision that many teenagers spend months umming and ahing over.
But a new study may serve as the encouragement your teen needs to apply to university.
Researchers from the University of Bath have discovered a huge discrepancy between the amount of money people who did, and did not go to university, retire with.
Baby boomer couples who did not go to university can expect to retire with £360,000 to their name, according to the study.
However, couples who did go to university retire with almost seven times more than this.
Writing in their study, the team said: ‘The findings show that by age 65-69 these couples have amassed £2.49M in net wealth (at the median), close to seven times the level reported by their low-educated counterparts.’
It’s a decision that many teenagers spend months umming and ahing over. But a new study may serve as the encouragement your teen needs to apply to university
In their study, the team, led by Dr Ricky Kanabar, set out to investigate the role that education plays in how people choose their parners – as well as how much money they save up.
The researchers focused on two key groups – ‘Baby Boomers’ (people born between 1947 and 1953), and Generation X (people born between 1973 and 1979).
Using the Wealth and Assets Survey for Great Britain, the researchers found that by the time university educated Boomers reach their mid-to-late 60s, they have an average net wealth of £2.49 million.
This is nearly seven times higher than couples with no formal qualifications.
‘We observe a clear divergence in wealth holdings, predominantly due to differences in the rate at which housing and pension wealth are accumulated,’ the researchers said.
The researchers’ analysis also revealed that almost a third of highly educated Baby Boomer couples reported receiving an inheritance by the time they reached their 50s.
In contrast, less than one in 10 couples with no formal education reported the same.
For those who did receive an inheritance, the average amount was £79,370.
Level of education also appears to play a role in how much people leave to their own children
That’s 28 times larger than what couples with no formal qualifications typically receive.
Level of education also appears to play a role in how much people leave to their own children.
University-educated Baby Boomer couples said they planned to leave an inheritance of about £332,000 to their children – more than double the amount reported by couples with no formal qualifications.
‘The disparity in accumulated wealth is reflected in couples’ inheritance intentions,’ the researchers explained.
‘High educated boomer couples are substantially more likely to report planning to bequeath assets to their heirs, and the magnitude of median intended inheritance is three times larger than that reported by low educated boomer couples.’
The researchers hope the findings will encourage further research on wealth management in Britain.
‘Future research efforts should aim to formally decompose the relative importance of factors such as inheritances and family background on the one hand and individual’s own characteristics such as education, which is important for particular types of wealth accumulation such as housing and pension wealth in explaining intragenerational wealth inequality across cohorts and over time,’ the researchers concluded.
‘Separately, when suitable data become available, research should seek to determine the relative contribution of changes in assortative mating and educational attainment across cohorts and how this has influenced the distribution of wealth holdings in GB.’
