In times of economic strain, pessimism about retirement often follows. Recent data suggests many Americans now believe their bleakest fear is becoming reality: that they won\u2019t be able to retire at all.<\/p>\n
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More than two in five Americans \u2014 43% \u2014 say they expect to work until they die, according to a WalletHub survey released at the end of August. Nearly two in five respondents (39%) said thinking about retirement makes them feel anxious, and more than one in four (29%) said they\u2019re counting on family members to support them financially once they stop working.<\/p>\n
Retirement doubt is not new in the U.S. A majority of Americans have told Gallup they\u2019re worried about not having enough money for retirement every year since 2001 \u2014 it has ranked as the country\u2019s top financial worry for more than two decades, ahead of medical costs and every other money concern Gallup tracks. But the latest wave of anxiety is landing as households contend with a fresh bout of inflation, which has moved back to the center of Americans\u2019 financial worries. Fortune<\/em> has\u00a0tracked this shift\u00a0across the retirement landscape, from vanishing pensions to a widening savings gap.<\/p>\nRising prices have been most visible in essentials like gas and groceries. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline hit $4.27 this week \u2014 up 13 cents in the past seven days alone \u2014 according to AAA, while the average price of ground beef reached $6.89 a pound in July, up 9.4% from a year earlier, per the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data.<\/p>\n
The result is fear and uncertainty about the future. A report released in August by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) found that among the 61% of Americans concerned they won\u2019t achieve financial security in retirement, 73% pointed to inflation as a contributing factor, with market volatility (62%) close behind. Those pressures echo the Employee Benefit Research Institute\u2019s 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, which found worker confidence in having enough to retire comfortably had slipped six points to 61%.<\/p>\n
Debt is compounding the strain and eating into savings. In the NIRS report, 74% of respondents said debt is a problem, and 77% said it prevents them from saving adequately for retirement. WalletHub\u2019s survey pointed in the same direction: 53% of respondents said paying off debt is more important than making retirement contributions. The picture helps explain why nearly four in 10 Americans nearing their 60s don\u2019t have a retirement account at all, as Fortune<\/em> has reported.<\/p>\nRetirement benefits beat working from home as a perk<\/h2>\n
Despite the strain, Americans still value retirement benefits highly. Among current workers, 75% say retirement benefits are a very or extremely important factor when weighing a job opportunity, and 41% say those benefits have become more important to them over the past year, according to the NIRS report.<\/p>\n
Individual fears track with broader pessimism about whether retirement is attainable at all. The NIRS report found 80% of Americans believe the country is facing a retirement crisis, up from 67% in 2020. Half of WalletHub\u2019s respondents (50%) said it isn\u2019t realistic for the average American to retire comfortably. It\u2019s a crisis Fortune<\/em> has examined from the top down: TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett recently called America\u2019s $4 trillion retirement shortfall \u201ca real crisis,\u201d warning that roughly 40% of Americans risk running out of money.<\/p>\nFor some, working indefinitely isn\u2019t only about money. A growing contingent of older Americans is staying on the job by choice \u2014 nearly 20% of those 65 and older are now employed, almost double the share of 35 years ago. But for millions more, the prospect of never clocking out is a source of dread, not fulfillment.<\/p>\n
Newer wrinkles are complicating the picture, too. The NIRS report found that 53% of Americans oppose employers offering cryptocurrency as an option in workplace retirement plans, and 77% consider crypto in those plans risky. Attitudes toward artificial intelligence are similarly wary: nearly half (45%) said they\u2019re uncomfortable with AI playing a role in delivering financial advice, even as a majority have used the technology.<\/p>\n
While retirement anxiety is nothing new, it has taken a sharper form amid a bleak economic outlook and an uncertain road ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmericans are telling us that retirement security is becoming harder to achieve as they struggle with the affordability of everyday life. Housing, healthcare, debt and other expenses are competing with the need to save for retirement,\u201d Dan Doonan, executive director of NIRS, said in the report. \u201cAt the same time, Americans are confronting new questions about AI and cryptocurrency as the retirement landscape becomes increasingly complex.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#American #retirement #fear #working #die<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In times of economic strain, p… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7423,1207,1904,2461,6577,4994,176,208,1411],"class_list":["post-4432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-401k","tag-american","tag-american-workers","tag-baby-boomers","tag-die","tag-fear","tag-inflation","tag-retirement","tag-working"],"yoast_head":"\n
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