Half of Americans doubt preparedness for retirement

Nearly half of Americans have little or no confidence that they are financially prepared for retirement, a problem many of them intend to solve by working longer, according to a new survey.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute survey found that 10 percent of workers plan to retire between ages 66 and 69, and another 26 percent intend to put off retirement at least until age 70 — far more than planned to work that long when EBRI conducted its first retirement confidence survey in 1991.

Although many Americans are living longer and fewer are in physically demanding jobs, those plans to work longer may be unrealistic. The survey found that 47 percent of retirees left the workforce unexpectedly, largely because of disabilities, other health issues or problems at work.

At present, the largest group of workers leaves the workforce at age 62. That is when they initially qualify for reduced Social Security retirement benefits, which represents a smaller monthly amount for those who take it before hitting their full retirement age. Just 14 percent of the retirees captured in EBRI’s latest survey retired after age 65, and only one in four of them works for pay in retirement.

“The risk is that many workers as they get older cannot work for reasons beyond their control, including disability, ill health, and loss of a job and inability to get another,” said Mathew Greenwald of Mathew Greenwald and Associates, a public-opinion firm that performed the survey.

Americans seem to have little choice but to plan to work as long as possible. One-third of workers say they or their spouse have not saved anything for retirement. And only 57 percent says they are actively saving for retirement.
— This article appeared on page B1 of the Albuquerque Journal