More Pensions and Retirement Disasters

Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
Mar 16, 2010 - 09:42 AM
By: Nilus_Mattive

I can’t believe the number of frightening retirement stories I’ve seen in just the last week. They suggest that the vast majority of our country’s citizens are completely unprepared for life after work. They point to a governmental backup system that is getting ever more desperate. And they suggest that other traditional sources of retirement income — such as corporate pensions — are in grave danger of imploding.

Let’s start with a truly mind-blowing fact …

43 percent of American Workers Have Less Than $10,000 in their Retirement Accounts!

Yes, you read that right. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey, a whopping 43 percent of American workers said they have less than $10,000 in retirement savings. http://www.ebri.org/pdf/PR.868.9Mar10.RCS-10.Final.pdf

That number excludes pensions and housing wealth. But even if those areas weren’t as shaky as they are, does anyone actually think that $10,000 will even last the average American half a year in retirement?

Oh, and it gets worse — 27 percent of the workers surveyed had less than $1,000 in their accounts! Think about it — a full quarter of Americans barely have enough saved for a few utility bills.

No wonder only 16 percent of the survey respondents said they were “very confidentâ€