By this coming May, both Siena College seniors Emma McDonald and Peter Aitken will be college graduates about to embark on new careers.

"It is so exciting, knowing all of the opportunities I could have while looking at different jobs," McDonald said.

Even before the two Siena College seniors receive diplomas, both admit they are already altering plans, due to fears about being able to support themselves financially.

"The original plan was to move out of Siena into my own apartment and life is going to great and I was going to get this job. Well, none of that has happened yet," Aitken said.

"It may be more practical for me to stay up in the Capital Region and live [at] home for a couple of years and then move," McDonald said.

This spring, the two both plan to attend a first-of-its-kind workshop on the Loudonville campus, that aims to prepare soon-to-be-grads to make the right financial choices.

The two-day seminar was thought up by their professor of management, Natasha Adams.

"The conversations the students are having now is something I really recognized personally," Adams said.

Based on a February study by the National Institute on Retirement Security, it seems the workshop is especially poignant. 

Of the 83 million millennials living in the U.S., two-thirds admit to having nothing saved for retirement. Of those who have money set aside, the majority have less than $20,000 in the bank.

"They're aware of how important it is to have that safety net but they're not quite sure how to take those steps," Adams said. 

Adams says a number of factors make it difficult for young people to set money aside, including unstable social security, fewer private companies offering pensions, high cost of living, and increased student loan debt. 

"It's something this generation has to take on that a lot of previous generations didn't have to, there was that social safety net," Adams said. 

Like many peers, McDonald and Aitken say retirement savings are not currently a priority.

"Retirement isn’t really something I’ve thought too much about yet," McDonald said.

"I have a savings account for the future, not for retirement. In my mind the future is maybe the next five to ten years," Aitken said.

But each believes more education, like the school's workshop, could lead many millennials to start thinking long-term.

"You just need to have that discipline in your life that tells you that you need to do this," Aitken said.

"We do need to start thinking about our future to be able to sustain a long life," McDonald said.