Retirement......ah, The Golden Years!!

Many of us have been trained to beleive that if we go to college, work hard, etc., we will have a comfortable life in our retirement years. However, is this fact or fiction? In an April 2006 AARP report (AARP Bulletin Retirement Planning Survey), there were some scary statistics on this critical issue facing all retirees.

In this study of nearly 1,800 adults age 40 and older:

< 75% see saving for retirement as very important; however,
< Only one-third (35%) feel confident that they will have enough money to live on in retirement :(

Further:

< 28% are not confident about having enough money to pay their medical expenses
< 40% are not confident in their ability to take care of long term care expenses
< 15% are not confident they will even have enough to take care of basic living expenses

So, this begs the question that very few want to address....what are we doing about it..well, the news is not good.

< 31% have not saved any money for their retirement
< 26% are not confident they know how to determine how much money they will need in retirement...can you blame them?
< 52% noted they have less than $25,000 in savings and investments for retirement

But, we are going to be taken care of....right?! Okay, let's look at this, workers identified their top three major sources of retirement income:

1) Employer-sponsored retirement plans, such as a 401(k) (42%)
2) Social Security(39%), and
3) Traditional employer-provided pension plan(35%)

However, in actuality, current retirees derive their current income from:

1) Social Security (58% note it as a major source)
2) Traditional employer-provided pension (43%)
3) Personal Investments (32%)

This is to get ya thinkin. We need to plan and take action. You need to decide what action you want to take, but since you couldn't do it yesterday, do it today!

By: John Park

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