The latest Retirement Confidence Survey is out and shocker – Americans are totally screwed. Â 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. Â 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. Â (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
- Stocks are Breaking Records and They Will Continue to Do So
- Report from Greece. Americans Suck
- Funding Your Family Members – When is Enough Enough?
- Steal This Business Idea
- Vanguard’s Dividend Growth ETF is tops
- Bear Market in Gold Upon Us?
- High Yield Investing and Dividend Increases in the News
- Save Money on Coffee
- Make Budgeting Less Painful
- 3 Investments Off the Beaten Path
Carnivals
Financial Carnival for Young Adults
Carnival of Financial Planning
Carnival of Financial Planning
Financial Carnival for Young Adults
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
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.
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.
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.
It’s amazing how poorly prepared so many millions of Americans are. Gonna be real scary!