Retirement Will Have to Wait for Many
Half of the 500 respondents, in ING Aetna Financial Services’ “Boomers on the Brink’ survey, which polled those with incomes of between $50,000 and $125,000, said they’d like to retire by age 55 and 80% expect to be as well off.
But only 20% believe they’ll have enough money to do so. Also:
- 75% hope to retire by age 60, but only half expect to be in the position to do so
- only 8% said they’d need to work beyond the age of 65 to support themselves.
Bad Planning
Compounding the problem:
- one in five said they had cashed out the money in their former employer’s retirement plan
- 37% said they would likely cash out of their retirement plan on changing jobs
- almost 50% spend one hour or less on retirement planning activities in a typical month
- the same proportion find retirement planning overwhelming or confusing, or don’t think about it at all.
Many households have omitted insurance from their retirement planning. Only 60% have disability insurance and only one in five have long-term care insurance.
Grade yourself
Asked to cite reasons for their poor retirement preparation, the 39% who gave themselves a C when asked to grade their planning efforts, cited, in order:
- failure to start planning for retirement early
- living beyond their means
- job instability
- bad investments.
The remaining respondents gave themselves As or B’s for:
- getting an early start
- making wise investments
- self discipline
- living modestly
- diligently saving money.
Bright Side
The survey did have a silver lining:
- almost two-thirds said they feel more financially prepared for retirement than their parents
- only 12% said they feel less prepared
- 90% surveyed said they have life insurance.
In addition the survey found that:
- half of respondents aren’t expecting an inheritance
- only 8% said they have received their inheritance so
far, and
another 32% expect to receive one - 5% have received some money and expect more.
On the whole, respondents were optimistic about the future, with 61% predicting that the stock market will begin to recover within a year, and only 3% expecting a rebound in three years.