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About half of Americans aren’t looking forward to retirement, at least in part because they fear they won’t have enough money, a new survey finds.
The survey, conducted in March on behalf of TD Ameritrade, found that only 52 percent of working adults agreed with the statement, “I am looking forward to retirement.”
The remaining 48 percent were either neutral or disagreed.
TD Ameritrade then asked the people who had disagreed with the statement why they weren’t looking forward to retirement.
The most common reason was that they didn’t have enough money saved, although a similar number of people said they were too young or retirement was too far away.
Other popular responses included that they like their work or feared being bored.
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, were most likely to be looking forward to retirement. Older workers born from 1930 to 1945 were most likely to feel negatively about retirement, perhaps because at their age it seems they might never retire.
The responses were from a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults.
The recession has had a varied effect on workers’ retirement plans. Some older people are working longer than they expected because they can no longer afford to retire. Others have been forced into early retirement because they lost a job and couldn’t find a new one.
The average age at which Americans expect to retire has been gradually creeping up. A recent Gallup poll found that it has risen to 67.
According to The Wall Street Journal, aging parents are now living longer, which means baby boomers' inheritances will likely be smaller than previous generations'. TODAY financial editor Jean Chatzky offers advice on how to be ready.
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Here are a few simple facts folks.
1. Until such time as Washington DC becomes a part of the United States Of America those we send to that S'hole will be working to line their own pockets at our expense.
2. The evidence of their utter disdain for the PEOPLE - NOT Corporations is clearly stated on every news cast and newspaper in America.
3. So why are WE THE PEOPLE tolerating their treason? We now have once again taxation without representation. Years ago we had a little dust up call the Revolutionary War.
4. As long as we allow corporations and 1%er's to purchase our "representatives" nothing will change.
I am retired now - I have enough to get by on but I am so EEF'ing fed up at having to work for nearly 60 years with the expectation of being able to retire in a reasonably stress free manner - yet that is not the case - the FHeds want to destroy SS and Medicare, increase the defense budget and Government in general which oh by the way works exactly like the argument they use to cut SS - as more of us retire fewer are paying into the "trust fund". Well to all of you FHeds inside the beltway when we are paying for a growing "work" force at the current ration of 13:1 (13 people with real jobs supporting one lazy ass SOB sucking from the federal trough) that seems to be ok.
What scares me silly is what kind of world are we leaving for our grandkids - you need to ask yourselves that question.
I think what we will see in the near future is that the European Economy will collapse, it will bring down what little economy we have left, and just like WW1 and 2 we will push the button that starts WW3 with the end result being the cockroaches will take over as the dominant species on this planet. Just read the pre-history of the first two world wars and put it into context of today's economy. There are a lot of parallels - also read up on Skull and Bones and the "new world order" - Scares the crap out of me.
Thank God (the real God not the MMR God) I will not be around to see it.
A bunch of Americans don't really want to retire because the job is their social life, gossip, collective bitching and griping, cliques, petty grab ass sexual encounters, etc. When you hear people say "Oh, I wish I had more time to spend at home and with the family" it's a bunch of BS.
And even IF by some stroke of good financial planning, taking care of their financial responsibilities, and hard work someone were able to look forward to a pleasant retirement some goddamn liberal @!$%# would find a way to take it away to support some lazy, fat, welfare leech!
You may be right. If we get seriously into wealth distribution, it won;t stop with millionaires.
Eventually they may decide a person making 25000 yearly is a fat cat if others are making minimum wage.
The liberals I know seem to think everyone should work hard, take advantage of educational opportunities, save money and be generous to those less fortunate. If you are having problems in life, perhaps it is due to the conservative friends and family you need to support.
We are retiring in 2 years, and have been looking into living in other countries that offer much cheaper healthcare and lifestyles. Sad, but the USA is no longer affordable for retirees, unless you belong in the 1%.
We spent our entire lives saving for this moment, only to find that it's not going to be enough, unless we move into our son's attic or basement. Too bad. Don't intend to keep working, a) No one wants to hire us, we are too old. b) We'd only get paid meager wages that turn into nothing after taxes.
Life is too short, we intend to make the best of it.
EMNH54, you need to be careful about the country that you choose. Many others seem to be on the verge of flushing down also,
Those of you making comments about Obama wiping out your retirement are just plain liars...if you bailed at the bottom of the market then it was YOU who did it to YOURSELF...besides I don't see none of you giving up your medicare or tricare to help the country financially so buzz off with your dumb comments about the president...
He has his own problems but ensuring your retirement comfort isn't one of them...
I'm retired, my wife and I worked our butts off for 40 years. If the goverment bodies would leave us alone, we would be fine!
Don't want any more help thanks!
Hmm...so you're not going to travel down any roads or highways, again? Never going to fly out of an airport? When you're attacked or house robbed....you're not going to call the police? How much fun would it be, if your garbage wasn't picked up again?
What...do you live in a tee-pee next to a private river? We Americans don't live in the outback of Australia....we are connected. And like it or not...there's a price. The alternative is for everyone to truly go back to living like Indians.
After LBJ raided Social Security to fund "The Great Society", so he could get the ethnic vote, it was down hill from there. Add to that the Greedy Republican Wall Street crook's 401 k "promise" debacle and you have a recipe for retirement disaster. Oh, and add the healthcare cost spiral for good measure.
Yep. And the health care costs are not making the doctors rich. The money is going to insurance companies whose mission statement is not to provide the best health care, but rather to collect premiums and hang on to as much of the candy as the gooberment will enforce for them.
The average social security recipient goes through what he contributed in three years. If you made reasonable decisions about investments and didn't panic, you have done well.
I've signed up for the "Jack Kevorkian " retirement plan !!!!
How else can one feel but concerned?. The conservatives without consciences are proposing draconian cuts to Medicare with a so-called voucher system to enrich the Health Insurance Companies and they are keeping it close to their vets what they want to do with Social Security. Plus how can you trust anything that comes out of TD with its founder who uses his money strictly to enhance his power? The GOP motto is survival of the fittest. If you don't have yours, Too Bad!!
And the Democrats have spent 1 1/3 TRILLION/yr in the red since they took over the House AND Senate in Jan of 2007 when W still had two years left. Unemployment was 4.6%, GDP was 3.5, and the stock market was steady. Our economy collapsed because the Dems thought it would be a good idea for everyone to have a house...whether they could afford it, or not!! Obama hasn't come up with a budget in over 1100 days????
Oh and you know what? I am old enough to retire and cannot. Not because "those illegal aliens" have worked the system as may "citizens" do , but because I was irresponsible and did not prepare adequately. Just sayin"
Someone posted that one of their reasons for not retiring was to help their kids that couldn't find work. Maybe if people actually retired between 65 and 67, there would be more jobs for the next generation.
Also my husband works for a Federal Agency and he can't retire until 60 with 30 years in. The military had the shorter terms.
If I "retire" today, I'll be homeless in 2 weeks. And it is not because I didn't "save for retirement". I had a 401K that was required to be in company stock. The CEO stole 1.1 billion dollars from the company and bought an island in the Atlantic which is his own "country", with no extradition treaty. The company went bankrupt, and the stock went from $60 per share to zero, about 2 years before I hit retirement age. Not all old people who don't retire are in that boat due to lack of effort.
jerryb-You were not required to put all your savings into company stock. You made a big mistake ( sometime you have to take responsibility for your own actions)
We are almost at retirement age, however, we will never be able to fully retire. About 15 years ago we sunk all our money into a small business,,,things were great until about 2006, when the real recession started,,,we are now stuck with a business and property it sits on and are unable to sell. If we do sell, it will be at a price that makes us lose everything we have put into our business. We'll never retire and maybe that's a good thing! Have to look on the bright side, right?
We old geezers won't have to worry much about Obamacare. We will soon be shipped off to the Soylent Green factories. Instead of investing the quarter million dollars they took out of my pay during my "career", they used it to run a Ponzi scheme. Now the income can't keep up with the output. That's why I'm still working. If there are no jobs for "young people", check with the CEO's that have been steadily outsourcing jobs to the countries that use slave labor. And you Republican bashers check your history books to find out who signed the NAFTA, etc.
I am so glad that I did NOT go to college when I could have. I would probably still be working for a Menial salary. I got out og highschool and learned several trades. I Retired when I was forty five years of age, and just started collecting Social Security. I do enjoy the sandy beaches and also the freedom to do whatever I want to do and whenever. College to me is a atrap. You go to school to drink and carouse. Istarted working right out of highschool. <y children both went to college and are now tied to there jobs until they are sxty seven. I have tried to tell them to Quit there jobs and start there own business, but they say that it would be to much work. I am sixty-seven years old and loving it.
I love what I do and if I want to I can simply work part time instead of full time. It's not a financially driven decision.
The idea of retirement per se is part of a dead American dream which has become a decomposing nightmare for most.
Those who were fortunate enough to work their way through a system which operated under different rules are reaping their reward- and wonder at the "laziness" of those who can't these days.
Some may be in for a rude awakening, as many of the companies sustaining their retirement look for ways to cut their income and their benefits to raise profits.
Those who retired from AT+T are even now coming under attack during the course of negotiations for a new contract- the old one having expired in April.
There's also a squeeze play going on against the majority.
From the bottom, the illegal immigrants- from the top, college grads who must take far more menial jobs than those they are qualified for.
Illegal immigration will never be effectively controlled- because cheap labor benefits the richest and the corporations, while the tax burden of their maintenance falls squarely on the shoulders of a middle class which is rapidly shrinking as more and more fall beneath the poverty line.
In short, it's a buyers market for companies- which, absent ethics, dive the hardest bargains possible- often through the prospects of those they employ with the same compassion given a tube of toothpaste.
I know good people whose retirement program consists of a handgun.
When they can't work, they plan to shoot themselves.
The reasons largely involve a desire not to burden their kids and an unwillingness to eat dog food and suffer through the poor health which seems inevitable given the cost of medical care.
They have money put aside too- they just don't believe it will sustain them, because their accounts were ravaged during the market collapse.
In what world is any of that their fault?
I'm too young to know how my retirement savings will turn out (i'm 27)...but I'm definitely looking forward to whenever I get to retire, lol. I like my job, but I'd much rather be spending my time doing other things (volunteering at animal shelters and whatnot). Here's hoping I can spend my entire career here (pays well, good retirement benefits) and that I keep myself in shape so I can actually do things after I retire.
Ask Romney if he is worried about his retirement! The guy could live for 25 years in retirement with $10 mil each year!Poor guy!!
Conservatism means, I think I can lie, cheat, steal, and misrepresent my prejudiced position, and I shouldn't have to pay a social or legal price for my behavior.
Conservatism: bad for America, bad for humanity.
I work from my home, set my own schedule, and I am one of the best in the country at what I do, in an industry that I pioneered. Why should I retire?