Northwestern Mutual just published their 2022 Retirement Planning & Progress study. It’s not a surprise that people are quite worried about the huge drop in their retirement accounts & soaring inflation over the last year. As a result, people are concerned their savings are way behind.
Still, this chart was quite surprising to me. It shows that almost one-half of Americans have no idea how much money they have saved for retirement. Yes, 45% of people are simply “unsure”!
I’m guessing that means that many of these folks have pretty close to $0 saved. This is akin to “if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.” In this case, “if you aren’t sure if you have saved anything, you have not.”
In general when you look through studies like these, you’ll notice that about 25% of people understand what is needed to retire happily and are working toward those goals. Others are completely lost.
I just wish it wasn’t half the country.
What insights surprise you from this study?
Image Credit: Pixabay; Chart: Northwest Mutual
MrFireStation 
No surprises. Confirmations. Which bring to mind some quotes. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” -Henry Ford. “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” – Yogi Berra. Retirement (like death) comes whether one wants it or not. Allowing oneself to remain clueless and passive about one’s own future is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sadness and squandered opportunity.
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That’s a great Yogi quote I haven’t heard before! I’m involved in some strategic planning for our Zoo … that’s a good blurb for a team kick-off.
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It’s not surprising and shows a major inflection point to come for our country IMO. It also surfaces a significant concern for those who have worked hard to defer and save…At what point will the government try to “fix” the problem of an eventual elder poverty issue. It is coming. The numbers show a potential massive disillusioned portion of our population coming in the near future. When politicians realize those 45% (and just a few more) can provide them a controllable majority, they will politicize the poverty issue and work to redistribute wealth in a significant way to remain in power. It’s already beginning to happen. We are starting to hear it in one side of the political spectrum today. This is a significant population that will eventually demand better options. Politicians will eventually recognize this “political opportunity” and take advantage. We should all continue to work to spread knowledge on how to be self sufficient and reduce this percentage for our country’s sake. We need to get back to basics and put personal finance back into our schools. However, I fear we may already be too far gone as a society given the spiral of those numbers.
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We’ll put, Thom. Yes, the politicians will certainly jump on “solving” the problem. Likely with financial tricks that make the economy less stable. Social Security & Medicare already already contain huge, unfunded liabilities. Still, the politicians will role out more benefits – even while not addressing the problems we already have. It’s a house of cards b
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