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Have You Calculated How Much You Will Need for Retirement?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2008 Comment (5)Calculating how much money you will need to live comfortably in retirement is a difficult task, especially when the number seems unattainable. But simply doing a retirement-needs calculation caused 44 percent of workers to save more, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey released today. Employees who established a retirement planning goal report saving or investing more (59 percent), changing their investment mix (20 percent), reducing their debt or spending (7 percent), enrolling in a retirement savings plan at work (5 percent), deciding to work longer (3 percent), and researching other ways to save for retirement (3 percent).
Yet only 47 percent of workers say they or their spouse have tried to calculate how much money they will need to retire comfortably. Calculation methods included doing their own estimate (35 percent), asking a financial adviser (33 percent), using an online calculator (15 percent), filling out a worksheet or form (9 percent), guessing (8 percent), and reading or hearing how much would be needed (7 percent). (Multiple responses were accepted.) Predictably, workers also arrived at wildly different numbers.
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Americans Lose Confidence in Their Ability to Retire
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2008 Comment (3)As the economy tanks, so does Americans' confidence about their ability to afford retirement. Workers saying they feel very confident about having enough money for a comfortable retirement decreased from 27 percent in 2007 to 18 percent this year, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey released today. That's the biggest one-year drop in the 18-year history of the survey.
Current retirees are also feeling the pinch. Retirees' confidence in their financial security decreased to 29 percent from 41 percent last year. "The economy and health costs are major concerns," explains Dallas Salisbury, president of the nonpartisan EBRI, in a statement.
