Despite rent, student loans and early withdrawals from their retirement accounts, investors under 30 feel confident they will enjoy the retirement they want, according to a recent study by E*TRADE.

E*TRADE’s quarterly tracking study of experienced investors showed how investors under 30 feel about — and plan for — retirement.

What are the hopes and dreams of investors under 30?

The study showed:

• They believe they will retire relatively young.
• Three out of four (76 percent) plan to retire by the age of 64.
• Nine out of 10 (85 percent) are confident they are saving enough to enjoy the retirement they want.

It’s a primary focus of their savings. For almost half (45 percent), retirement is the top priority for long-term saving — even more so than saving for a big purchase or home, according to the news release announcing the study.

And it shows in their salary contributions. Nearly nine out of 10 (86 percent) allocate more than 5 percent of their salary to a retirement account. Rolling those funds over to a self-directed account could help boost those efforts.

But housing costs and student loans get in the way. Roughly two-thirds feel that housing costs (69 percent), student loans (66 percent) and other educational expenses (63 percent) are barriers to saving for retirement.

They’re dipping in early. Slightly more than half (54 percent) have already dipped into their retirement accounts. Of those who’ve made an early withdrawal from their retirement account, nearly three quarters (74 percent) later regret doing so.

“It is great to see young investors focused on their retirement goals and beginning to save early, as the power of compounding returns is significant for this group,”  Mike Loewengart, VP of Investment Strategy at E*TRADE Financial, said in the release. “Developing good saving and investing habits earlier in life will only benefit their long-term investing plans.”

Loewengart offered a few steps young investors may consider to help them reach their retirement savings goals:

Follow a savings code.

The biggest factor to pursuing retirement goals — hands down — is being disciplined about contributions. Younger investors should consider increasing their contribution as their salary grows as it’s much harder to scale back income after getting used to a bigger paycheck.

Work the match.

If your employer offers a contribution match to your 401(k), this is as close to free money as one will ever come by in the investing world. It is probably the easiest way to seriously kick-start long-term investing.

Mix it up.

Asset location — the idea of strategically deploying investments across taxable and nontaxable accounts — can go a long way towards ensuring your portfolios are optimized for long-term tax efficiency. When you maintain accounts with different tax profiles, such as taxable brokerage accounts, tax-deferred 401(k)s and Roth IRAs, you may have more tax flexibility later in life.

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Building and maintaining a well-diversified, risk-appropriate portfolio for the long term is one of the best ways to stay on track to achieving retirement goals. Try to avoid emotional investing pitfalls — like timing the market — by focusing on the long term and sticking to your plan.

About the Survey

This wave of the survey was conducted from April 1 to April 10 of 2017 among an online U.S. sample of 958 self-directed active investors who manage at least $10,000 in an online brokerage account. The survey has a margin of error of ±3.18 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. It was fielded and administered by Research Now. The panel is broken into thirds of active (trade more than once a week), swing (trade less than once a week but more than once a month), and passive (trade less than once a month). The panel is 60 percent male and 40 percent female with an even distribution across online brokerages, geographic regions, and age bands. “Young investor” is defined by surveyed investors between the ages of 18–29. This group represents a sample size of 164. To learn more about E*TRADE’s trading and investing platforms and tools, visit etrade.com.