Study: Most U.S. workers unprepared for retirement
By Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times
More than half of U.S. workers aren’t saving enough money to be able to cover essential living expenses in retirement, according to a survey by Fidelity Investments.
The savings survey found that 55 percent of people will have trouble covering housing, healthcare and food expenses, Fidelity said.
The online survey of 2,200 households, performed from June through October, measured whether workers were on track to cover their estimated post-retirement expenses.
If we all retired from government jobs at 50 or 55 we would all be prepared for retirement. I think most of us could manage to live on 75 or 80 percent of our working salaries which is what tenured government employees receive.
Most everyone without government jobs or a fat inheritance will be going off a steep cliff. The simple reason is that no one can save their way to retirement. Watch the Frontline story online on PBS about the 401k scam. Wake up everyone, you are on your own, what’s your plan?
@suspicious mind: just a clarification on your coment about government pensions:
a retiree with 30 years service at age 55 receives 56% of his BASE salary (averaged over 3 years). That actually bumps up another 8.46% because retirement deductions and Medicare taxes are no longer taken out. To get the maximum of 80%, a retiree would have to work 41 years 11 months. To that 80% would be another 8.46% for the same reasons cited above.
Definitely both generous pensions though,when compared to many private sector plans.
Coastside, not ALL ‘government’ pensions are the same. Feds, States, Cities, Counties, Special Districts, all different.
But they generally all get a lot more than any but the very top of the private sector.
Dog is correct…the bigger retirement plans are those for police and firemen. Many of us think they are overpaid and the retiremant plan via union help are too rich.
I also believe that the situation is worse than 55 percent. If you believe we have 350 million people in the US and the average family is 4, you get about 87 million families….how representative is 2200 data points in 87 million?
Most public safety get 3% per year. So after 30 years at age 50 or so they get 90% plus no taxes on the disability portion. Not to shabby. Most others get 2& 1/2 % at 55. No to bad either compared to Social Security at 66.