Retirement Crisis Looming – And Other Links

by Darwin on March 19, 2013

The latest Retirement Confidence Survey is out and shocker – Americans are totally screwed.  Here are some key observations that should provide a wakeup call:

  • Percentage of Americans confident about the ability to retire is at an all-time low.
  • Many Americans are citing unrealistically high savings proportions (30% or more – who the heck really does that if they haven’t started already?) to reach their goals – and they never will. Only the people who exhibit this single most important trait will succeed.
  • Half of those surveyed have never even calculated what it will take to retire.  Have you?
  • 41% of employees cite day to day costs and cost of living as the reason they don’t contribute enough
  • Most people that sought out professional financial advice have disregarded it anyway.  (see the difference between a Fee Only and Asset Compensated Financial Advisor)
  • The confidence in the ability to pay for retirement costs like medical care and long-term care, etc. continues to decline.

In effect, things were already bad and this survey concludes that they are only getting worse.

How Are You Doing?

How Are Your Parents Doing?

Hopefully on a more upbeat note, some mid-week links:

Stuff I’ve Written (or Published) All Over

Carnivals

Carnival of Wealth

Carnival of Retirement

Carnival of Personal Finance

Financial Carnival for Young Adults

Carnival of Financial Planning

Carnival of Wealth

Carnival of Financial Planning

Carnival of Retirement

Carnival of Passive Investing

Carnival of Money Pros

Financial Carnival for Young Adults

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie

Carnival of Passive Investing

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Money Beagle March 19, 2013 at 12:10 pm

I have always tracked what we’re saving, what we expect to save, and what we expect to spend, and for a long while things were relatively in line for us to say that we could hopefully enjoy a comfortable retirement when that time comes, but the biggest threat to that over the last 10 years has been the emergence of out of control health care costs. If they continue to go up over the next 25-30 years, then there’s no way that our models today will hold true. something has to change.

Reply

Darwin March 21, 2013 at 8:47 pm

Since my employer subsidizes ours in large part, it’s not killing me, but the monthly payments have gone up like double-digits EVERY year. so, even from a low base, yes, eventually it’s really going to kill us too. College costs aren’t helping either since we’re saving for that too.

Reply

krantcents March 19, 2013 at 3:08 pm

I am doing fine, but I was always a saver! The key to having enough savings for retirement is starting early and thinking about how much you will need in retirement.

Reply

Darwin March 21, 2013 at 8:46 pm

It’s amazing how poorly prepared so many millions of Americans are. Gonna be real scary!

Reply

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