Twenty-three percent of survey respondents “intend to rely on Social Security as their main source of income in retirement.” Because of the continuous lack of financial education I am not surprised that so many people are looking to Social Security as their main retirement plan.
Some of the other results from the survey include:
Only 31% believe their savings, mutual funds or individual retirement accounts will be the primary source of their income. The survey also found 61% of nonretired Americans believe they will need to save $500,000 or more by the time they retire, while 59% believe that they are likely to reach their savings goals.
Survey respondents were split in their views about retirement age. While 25% do not plan to retire at all, another 25% plan to retire between the ages of 51 to 60, and 36% plan to retire between 61 and 69.
The people that plan to retire between 51 and 60 better have either several million dollars saved or a business that generates a passive income. Of course the type of life a person wants to live has a direct correlation to the amount of money they need in order to support that life.
This is yet another indication that we aren't saving enough in the US. (It's not just our government that is running deficits apparently.) If our national savings rate for individuals wasn't in the negative, we might actually have resources of our own to depend on. People have traditionally had the equity in their homes to depend on, as "savings" for retirement. However, on top of our lack of savings, we've been financing our consumer excesses with that same equity. We're likely to see that backfire if the current slow down in the housing market deepens -- and it won't just hurt those who want to retire.
Posted by: Michael Chantrel | November 14, 2006 5:03 AM | Permalink to Comment