Half of young Americans expect better financial future than their parents: poll

About half of young Americans expect they will be wealthier than their parents, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center and MTV poll released Tuesday.

The poll found that among 15- to 26-year-olds, about half of those surveyed say they expect they will be better off than their parents in terms of household finances, while 29 percent expect to do as well as their parents. Twenty percent said they believe they will be worse off. 

{mosads}Parents were slightly more optimistic about their children’s financial futures, with 60 percent saying their children will do better financially and only 12 percent predicting their children would be worse off. 

The expectations of 15- to 26-year-olds roughly match up with the realities of upward income mobility. About half of Americans born in 1984 earned more at age 30 than their parents did, according to the Associated Press. 

Both young people and parents were divided over their expectations for the economy.

About 29 percent of young people expect the economy to improve, compared to 30 percent who expect it to get worse and 41 percent who predict it will stay the same. Meanwhile, 35 percent of parents expect economic improvement, while 27 percent predict the economy will get worse and 38 percent expect it to stay the same. 

The AP-NORC Center and MTV surveyed 580 young people and 591 parents of children aged 15-26 from Aug. 23-Sept. 10. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 6.6 percentage points for young people and plus or minus 7.5 percentage points for parents.