Why You Need To Be Saving For Retirement
By Floyd Saunders, The Author of Five Paths To Wealth, Family Financial Freedom and Figuring Out Wall Street.
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The statistics on retirement are down right scary. Are you saving for retirement? If not just look at some startling retirement statistics about the future of your retirement.
1. 56% of Americans have not attempted to calculate how much they will need to save to live comfortably after retiring.
2. Your future will be over-populated, filled with thousands of elderly individuals all vying for the same government programs, private pensions, and Medicare.
3. Not to mention the fact that most retirees will also need to continue working to supplement their income, meaning the workforce will also become highly competitive. 74% of the current workforce expects to continue working while retired
4. One out of six American retirees currently live below the poverty line. Thats definitely not something those preparing to retire want to hear, but sadly its the cold hard truth.
5. 46% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, 29% have less than $1,000 saved.
6. 36% of adults have not contributed anything into their savings.
7. 87% of those about to retire are not confident they will have enough money to live comfortably.
8. In 1991 50% of Americans working planned to retire before they hit 65. In 2013 the number went down to 23%.
9. 56% of Americans currently retiring are doing so with an outstanding amount of debt.
10. Only 42% of private sector workers between 25 and 64 have any type of pension coverage.
11. A 65 year-old couple retiring in 2015 will need approximately $246,000 to cover medical expenses throughout retirement alone.
12. Low earners retiring when they are 62 years-old will only receive 40% of their pre-retirement income from Social Security.
13. 75% of those retiring regret not saving for retirement earlier.
14. Almost 50% of current retirees had to unexpectedly retire due to health problems, disability or lay-offs.
15. 1/3 of households are completely dependent on Social Security
16. More than a third of households end up with inadequate 401(k) balances.
17. 60% of Americans currently working have reported their household savings and investments (not including house/property value and pension benefits) are less than $25,000.
18. 40% of the Baby Boomer generation plan to work until they die.
19. There are currently 40 million retirees in America. By 2030, almost 20% of the American populace will be retirees 65 years or older. For the next 15 years, approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers will retire each day. By 2050 there will be 90 million retirees all competing for the same resources, services and job competition.
20. The retirement age is expected to increase from 65 to 67 years old.
21. As a whole, American workers are approximately $3.6 trillion short of what they actually need to live comfortably.
22. In 2012, 18.5% of individuals 65 years or older made up the labor force.
If you are covered by a 401(k) plan at work, invest fully in it. If your employer does not offer a retirement plan, then make sure you contribute to your IRA or Roth IRA. If this is greek to you, then check out our articles on this web site or purchase one or more of the books we have written to help you manage your money, understand financial markets and learn how to make investing easy.
You can learn more about investing and managing your money to be more financial secure by reading Five Paths to Wealth.
Other books by Floyd Saunders include Family Financial Freedom and Figuring Out Wall Street.
You can learn more about him at his author web site.
Book cover design by Ashley Dameron
