U.S. News and World Report has reported that the vast majority of young workers are failing to sign up for myriad tax-advantaged accounts, potentially leaving hundreds if not thousands of dollars of benefits on the table.

Though the vast majority of eligible baby boomers participate in their 401(k)s, less than a third of workers 25 and under are contributing to these employer sponsored retirement plans. Even worse, only 4% of young workers are maxing out their workplace retirement plans, according to a recent survey by the tax information service CCH.  Only 19% of young workers say they plan to fund a traditional or Roth IRA this year, and the majority of 18- to 24-year-olds don't even know whether they qualify to fund various types of IRAs.

Ironically, these accounts are more important to young workers than to older Americans. That's because the majority of younger workers aren't covered by an old-fashioned guaranteed pension. Moreover, every dollar that twenty-somethings save will be more valuable over the course of their lives than the same dollar will be for older workers. That's because young workers have more time to invest their savings and then let that money grow, tax-deferred. 

I am so glad that Ramit Sethi’s financial awareness blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, is gathering such a following, because this is a very sad situation.  Given the tremendous size of the current generation of twenty-somethings, and the fact that the baby boomers will have drained the nation’s Social Security long before these young people get to retirement age, it has never been more important that those under 30 save for their future.  

For those of you who long to have your own businesses but currently work for a company that offers financial benefits like these, I challenge you to take advantage of them immediately.  After all, if you want to be an entrepreneur, they won’t be around forever!