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January 23, 2014 at 07:14 AM
It’s one of the most hotly debated questions: will Social Security and retirement savings be enough to sustain workers in retirement?
The Employee Benefit Research Institute says that current levels of Social Security benefits coupled with at least 30 years of 401(k) savings could provide most workers with annual income of at least 60% of their preretirement pay on an inflation-adjusted basis.
In just-released research, EBRI says that assuming current Social Security benefits are not reduced, 83% to 86% of workers with more than 30 years of eligibility in a voluntary enrollment 401(k) plan are simulated to have sufficient 401(k) accumulations that, combined with Social Security retirement benefits, will be able to replace at least 60% of their wages and salary at age 64 on an inflation-adjusted basis.
When the threshold for a financially successful retirement is increased to 70% replacement of income at age 64, 73% to 76% of these workers will still meet that threshold, relying only on 401(k) and Social Security combined. At an 80% replacement rate, 67% of the lowest income quartile will still meet the threshold.
The new analysis by EBRI’s proprietary retirement adequacy computer modeling also found that when the same analysis is conducted for automatic enrollment 401(k) plans (with an annual 1% automatic escalation provision and empirically derived opt-outs), the probability of success increases substantially: 88% to 94% at a 60% threshold; 81% to 90% at a 70% replacement threshold; and 73% to 85% at an 80% threshold.
