Americans Continue to Lose Confidence about Retirement

As a result, a growing number of Baby Boomers (73% compared with 67% in March) say they plan to keep working in retirement, according to an Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll. Many are postponing their departure from the workplace, with 16% planning to wait until after age 70. About a quarter (27% , similar to 25% in March) say they “never plan to retire.” (Three in 10 Boomers say they already consider themselves retired.)  

Increasingly, this demographic is counting on government assistance. According to the poll, 45% (up slightly from 40% in March) say they will rely heavily on Social Security. By contrast, 29% (up slightly from 24%) say an employer-paid pension will play a vital role in their retirement income.  

Younger people are more likely to say that they will depend on a workplace retirement savings plan than Boomers (37% among those born later than 1964 call it “extremely important”) and less likely to depend on Social Security (35% of that age group call Social Security “extremely important”).  

One-third of 47- to 65-year-olds devote a “great deal” of thought to retirement – compared with just 10% of 18- to 29-year-olds, 19% of 30- to 46-year-olds, and 22% of Americans 66 and older. 

According to the Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll, 41% of Baby Boomers expect they will need to scale back their lifestyle in retirement, and 31% believe they will struggle financially.  

However, only 10% say they expect money from other family members to be either "extremely important" or "very important." Five percent say they expect to be either "extremely likely" or "very likely" to be financially dependent on their kids or other family members, and 4% say it's "extremely likely" or "very likely" that they will need to move into the home of one of their children or that of another family member.   

In addition, most Boomers are not relying on money from the sale of their home; only 20% expect it to be "extremely important" or "very important."   

With the Dow Jones average falling more than 10% from March until the time the poll was taken, 62% (5% more than in March) say that one or more of their investments has taken a hit. Forty-two percent lost money on a workplace retirement savings plan, 41% on personal investments outside of an Individual Retirement Account or workplace savings, 32% on an IRA, and 29% on real estate.   

Among these respondents, 53% now say they will retire later than they expected.  Yet Americans remain positive; 70% of 47- to 65-year-olds say they are either "very happy" or "somewhat happy." And 71% say their health is either "excellent" or "good."  

More about the AP-Life Goes Stong is available at http://press-lifegoesstrong.com.