Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
September 26, 2012 at 09:14 AM
In the past two days, three surveys have been released that paint a rather bleak picture of Americans’ financial status and expectations about retirement.
Perhaps the most startling finding came from a national survey from CashNetUSA.com. Surveying about 1,000 Americans, 23 percent report they had less than $100 in savings to fund an unexpected emergency on a given day, while 46 percent say they have only $800 tucked away in a savings account.
Meanwhile, Aviva USA’s recent Consumer Attitudes to Savings survey pretty much mirrors those results, with only 27 percent revealing they have enough money saved to pay for an unexpected emergency while seven out of 10 report having no savings account at all. Just under half own life insurance and roughly a third hold investments.
About a third of the respondents (32 percent) consider financial planning too complicated for them to do on their own, and almost one in four would like someone else to sort out their financial affairs.
No surprise then that Americans are concerned about their golden years. Nearly six in 10 expect to work beyond retirement age and are worried they won’t have enough saved for an acceptable standard of living in retirement. Strikingly, 17 percent say the only way to ensure they have adequate retirement savings is for it to be required by law.
Commenting on the results in a statement, Matt Spackman, Aviva USA vice president of customer insights and analytics, said that some Americans are “paralyzed” in the face of their financial challenges and consequently do nothing. “It’s surprising that 27 percent of Americans say they do little or no financial planning,” he stated. “And it’s no wonder that two-thirds of Americans say life is more risky than it used to be. Many simply do not have the financial backstops they need to deal with life’s unexpected events or a plan to sustain them in retirement.”
Work in retirement? Maybe not.
