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March 13, 2013 at 09:21 AM
Americans are “highly anxious” about their retirement prospects, a report from the National Institute on Retirement Security found. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they were worried about their retirement in spite of a more stable market, declining unemployment and increased consumer confidence over all.
The report found almost the same percentage of respondents think the average worker can’t save enough on his or her own to guarantee a secure retirement. Three-quarters say the stock market makes it “impossible for the average American” to estimate how much they’ll be able to save for retirement.
Furthermore, 82 percent of respondents say all Americans should have access to a pension plan, not just state and local employees, up from 68 percent who agreed in 2011. The report found similar levels of support for universal access to pensions between private and public workers, at 81 percent and 88 percent, respectively.
Investors appear to be getting increasingly pessimistic, too. Overall, 82 percent of respondents said it was getting harder to prepare for retirement, and 60 percent said it was getting much harder. The biggest factor, though, is inflation cutting into middle-class salaries. Fewer pensions rated as the second biggest factor, followed by investors’ increased life expectancy.
NIRS noted that while a higher Social Security retirement age was rated a major factor in the increased difficulty of planning for retirement by just under half of respondents, it’s likely to be a bigger factor among smaller segments of the population like women, single people and those with lower incomes.
The report found both public and private sector employees look on pensions favorably, and nearly 60 percent of respondents who currently have a pension said it was a factor in their decision to work for their employer. When asked to choose between an employer that offered a pension and one that offered a 401(k), 45 percent said they were more likely to choose the employer that offered a pension, compared with 27 percent who would choose the 401(k).
