About 1 in 4 US adults 50 and older who aren't yet retired expect to never retire, AARP study finds ( abcnews.go.com )

About one-quarter of U.S. adults age 50 and older who are not yet retired say they expect to never retire and 70% are concerned about prices rising faster than their income, an AARP survey finds.

About 1 in 4 have no retirement savings, according to research released Wednesday by the organization that shows how a graying America is worrying more and more about how to make ends meet even as economists and policymakers say the U.S. economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation. 

Everyday expenses and housing costs, including rent and mortgage payments, are the biggest reasons why people are unable to save for retirement.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

Only 1 in 4? 🤔 I've NEVER been under the illusion I would retire.

AbidanYre ,

Are you over 50?

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

Yup!

Trollception ,

Did you save at least 20-30% of your income in tax advantaged accounts?

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

30% on the solar panels. ;)

Kecessa ,

I would like to see a long term study on how people feel about it because I understand people in their 20s feel like it's hopeless but it would be nice to know how their opinion evolves as they move through their career.

gimpchrist ,
@gimpchrist@lemmy.world avatar

I've got literal $0 for retirement and my bank account is in the red. It's not going to be too good when I'm old.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I really think that some time should be given to personal finance in school curriculum.

When I went through, we learned to write a check and balance a checkbook. That was it.

zenharbinger ,

My oldest did have to take a personal finance class in high school (last year) and did cover things like retirement saving and different methods of. I think some places are trying.

Edit: I, on the other hand, had your experience.

njm1314 ,

Doesn't matter how many classes you take when there's multiple Financial collapses in your lifetime

dhork ,

Yeah, schools should be teaching more about financial literacy, but it's impossible to teach kids about good habits for retirement 40+ years down the road when the laws that govern their retirement haven't been written yet.

Heck, I'm old enough that my first job out of college actually had a pension plan. I never expected to work long enough there to take advantage of it, though. And I was correct -- even if I didn't leave when I did, the place eventually went bankrupt. Any advice they would have given me in high school about retirement savings would be obsolete now.

The only advice that is eternal is to save money, and live below your means. That seems difficult these days, though, especially for young kids just starting out.

afraid_of_zombies ,

My wife has a pension through her employer, it is going to be her last employer until retirement. Hey at least the golden handcuffs are golden.

FancyPantsFIRE ,
@FancyPantsFIRE@lemm.ee avatar

My high school had a mandatory senior class that taught things like budgeting, investing, filing (very simple) taxes, and balancing a check book. It also required you to do some form of community service. The investing portion was bad as it was basically stock picking with fun money.

It’s hard to say how much the class impacted me as I don’t have a control, and I then proceeded through four years of college not really exercising those skills. I suspect it’s not a silver bullet, but still a positive inclusion in the curriculum.

Kecessa ,

These days I'm sure we would see students saying they went SPY 0DTE YOLO because of WSB's popularity

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

Definitely. I’m a branch manager and we’re putting together a financial training class for our employees because everyone is so bad at budgeting (like non existent to I don’t understand percentages … this is common core at work). School system has completely failed at this and many parents have as well.

afraid_of_zombies ,

I think we need to bring back pensions. There is plenty of money around.

MagicShel ,

I've got retirement funds scattered across a half-dozen different companies and honestly I have no idea how to find it. Probably doesn't amount to more than $150k anyway. Could be half that - I really have no way of knowing. I was planning on never retiring, but the job market says otherwise. I might already be retired. Six weeks into my job search with 25 years of experience and not even an interview much less an offer. It hasn't been this bad since 2010.

dhork ,

That money is yours no matter how far it is scattered. Try to get in contact with those companies and check in on the accounts. You are allowed to move those funds into a single rollover IRA account with no tax hit if they send the check to the Rollover IRA provider directly.

You might be surprised at what you have. You might remember putting in $150k but it's possible it has grown quite a bit since then.

grue ,

You might be surprised at what you have. You might remember putting in $150k but it’s possible it has grown quite a bit since then.

It's also possible something dumb might have happened, like it ending up in a cash-equivalent sweep account or something, which only makes it more urgent that he get it all rolled over into an IRA that's set up and paid attention to properly.

rhacer ,

I won't be retiring. Not particularly good with money, plus a divorce, I'm 60, and have about 200K in retirement. It's my own fault, I could have been far smarter. Now was always far more important than then.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

It’s my own fault, I could have been far smarter.

No. No it isn't. It's the country's fault for not giving you enough to retire on even though you didn't make the best financial decisions over the years. People should not be punished in their old age because they didn't follow all the right rules of capitalism (which keep changing anyway).

It might be your fault that you're not as comfortable or as well-off as you would like to be, but it is not your fault that you can't retire.

Eeyore_Syndrome ,
@Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works avatar

Remember that time they moved retirement to 67 in 2015?

I don't because I was too busy working 50 hrs a week @$14-19$/hr paycheck to paycheck.

And now I have fibromyalgia at 38 and hope I die at 50.

Thanks America.

prole ,
@prole@sh.itjust.works avatar

I'm 60, and have about 200K in retirement

Sadly, I think that puts you way ahead of most Americans.

tearsintherain ,
@tearsintherain@leminal.space avatar

"...even as economists and policymakers say the U.S. economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation."

disconnected much?

Denvil ,

Perhaps the inflation is under control, but the constant price increases certainly aren't no matter what they say

MNByChoice ,

Prices only drop of deflation.

Economists only mean prices have increased less this last year for the selection of things they looked at.

They say deflation is terrible, but there are still Japanese in Japan. (Japan has had decades of deflation.)

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Seems low.

givesomefucks ,

Doesn't mean they will, just that 3/4s think they will

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

So you're saying a good 50% of Americans have no idea how they could possibly retire, they just think they will anyway.

meleecrits ,
@meleecrits@lemmy.world avatar

Anecdotal, but I've actually been saving for retirement since I was in my twenties (forty now) and I doubt I'll actually be able to retire. Most models say I need to put in more than ten percent of my salary and I can't afford that.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I have never made enough to save for retirement and I've been told right here on Lemmy that I shouldn't be buying my kid Taco Bell and myself a chai latte a couple of times a month to make our lives a little bit more bearable because I should be saving for retirement and providing for her when I'm old so she doesn't have to take care of me.

Because, you know, $400 a year or whatever that is would definitely be enough to retire on.

Just yesterday, someone actually said to me here, "do you not have a 401k?" as if that were a rarity like leprosy. But then it's my fault for not being rich enough I guess.

givesomefucks ,

Welcome to America

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