Key Takeaways<\/p>\n
About 10% of Americans say luxury handbags could fund their retirement, according to TIAA\u2019s new survey. About 10% of Americans say their best shot at funding retirement<\/a> might come from either winning the lottery<\/a> or investing in luxury handbags, according to a new TIAA survey. It sounds like a punchline\u2014until you realize the gut punch behind it.\n<\/p>\n Dig into the data in this and other recent surveys, and the finances many Americans are facing look bleak. Almost two-thirds of Americans think retiring \u201con time\u201d is a fantasy, 30% aren\u2019t confident they can cover basic expenses as they get older, and one in five isn\u2019t saving for retirement at all.\n<\/p>\n Why Luxury Handbag Investing Matters<\/p>\n When 10% of Americans cite lottery tickets or luxury handbags as viable retirement strategies, it may signal that traditional retirement nest egg-building paths<\/a> feel broken or inaccessible. This isn’t really about bags\u2014it’s about how many Americans are losing faith in the financial systems that were supposed to secure their futures.<\/p>\n What the TIAA Stat Really Says <\/p>\n The TIAA survey highlights a sense of hopelessness that’s shaping the way Americans are approaching retirement today. A Goldman Sachs study out last week showed just how impossible the system now feels to many savers: 40% of working Americans say they live paycheck to paycheck<\/a>, and almost three-quarters of those say everyday costs make saving for retirement almost impossible.\n<\/p>\n Even higher earners aren\u2019t immune\u2014about four in 10 people making more than $300,000 say they\u2019re still living paycheck to paycheck, thanks to rising debt and lifestyle creep<\/a> that erodes savings. Add in what Goldman Sachs calls the “financial vortex<\/a>” of the mid-2020s economy\u2014the voraciousness of housing, healthcare, and caregiving in eating up record shares of income\u2014and the dream of a stable retirement starts to look more like a luxury than even a handbag crafted from Togo leather by an artisan in France.\n<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans clearly want peace of mind in retirement<\/a>, but the reality is that\u00a0too many people either aren\u2019t saving enough<\/a> or aren\u2019t confident in their ability to plan,” TIAA\u2019s Kourtney Gibson said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Only Certain Bags Outperform the S&P 500 <\/p>\n As investment ideas go, betting your future on a certain luxe good<\/a> isn\u2019t the worst thing you could pick up from TikTok<\/a>. Some luxury handbags, particularly the Herm\u00e8s Birkin and the Herm\u00e8s Kelly, have outpaced the stock market over entire decades. One analysis found their value rose about 14% annually between 1980 and 2015, faster than the S&P 500<\/a>\u2019s average return<\/a> (representing how the stock market broadly did) over the same period.\n<\/p>\n Still, not all bags are star performers. Though handbags were the best-performing collectible in the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index in 2024, they only had a 2.8% gain. That didn’t keep pace with inflation<\/a> that year, which was 2.9%. Investing in a broad S&P 500 index fund would have gotten you more than eight times the gain, at 23.3%.<\/p>\n Because even if you win the “Herm\u00e8s game”\u2014the opaque, almost mythical process where only certain customers with long purchase histories get offered the opportunity to buy a coveted bag\u2014you still need to be right about which style, size, material, and color will gain in value.\n<\/p>\n The Herm\u00e8s Sellier Birkin, for example, emerged as 2024’s “standout investment piece,” according to a report from ReBag, with a 250% value retention. That means a Sellier Birkin bought at the retail price could resell for two and a half times its original price. But resale prices vary, down to Walmart’s (WMT<\/a>) viral knock-off, which fans have dubbed the “Wirkin.”<\/p>\n Warning<\/p>\n Luxury resale platforms take up to 40% in commissions, so even if your bag holds value, profits can vanish fast. Resale demand can shift quickly. Plus, some bags aren’t that liquid<\/a>. That is, unlike stocks you can sell in seconds, handbags can sit unsold for months\u2014not ideal if you need the cash quickly.<\/p>\n The broader takeaway from TIAA\u2019s survey isn\u2019t that some Americans think handbags can replace savings\u2014it\u2019s that the retirement math feels so broken<\/a> that people are considering it.\n<\/p>\n If you can swing a $12,000 handbag and want to tell yourself (or your partner who just saw the receipt) it\u2019s an \u201cinvestment,\u201d go ahead\u2014just don\u2019t skip contributing to your 401(k)<\/a> to do it. A few rare bags may significantly rise in value, but most won\u2019t beat a diversified portfolio<\/a>, and none will send you a guaranteed check every month in retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways About 10% of Americans say luxury handbags could fund their retirement, according to TIAA\u2019s new survey.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-321318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSome designer bags, like Herm\u00e8s Birkins, have significantly climbed in value\u2014but that\u2019s the exception, not the rule.
\nExperts say handbags can have resale potential, but they’re not a reliable plan for retirement income<\/a>.<\/p>\n