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Workers' Confidence and Lack Thereof about Retirement

Rob Bixby/flickr

Since 1998, the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies has conducted a national survey of U.S. businesses and workers regarding their attitudes toward retirement. Key highlights from the most recent survey administration indicate just how unnerved many Americans remain regarding retirement prospects.  61 percent of workers indicate that they have not fully recovered from the Great Recession, including 7 percent who believe they may never recover.  40 percent of Baby Boomer workers expect a decrease in their standard of living when they retire.

83 percent of Generation X workers, many of whom are in their 40s, believe that their generation will have a more difficult time attaining financial security than their parents. Among Millennial workers, the youngest members of the labor force, only 18 percent are very confident about their future retirement.  Prospective retirees frequently depend on a three-legged stool comprising Social security, personal savings, and employer-sponsored retirement benefits.  The current median household savings in all retirement accounts among Baby Boomers is less than $150,000. Baby Boomers believe that working longer represents a common sense solution to mitigating retirement savings shortfalls. Accordingly, many are taking active steps to remain healthy so that they can keep working.  

Anirban Basu, Chariman Chief Executive Officer of Sage Policy Group (SPG), is one of the Mid-Atlantic region's leading economic consultants. Prior to founding SPG he was Chairman and CEO of Optimal Solutions Group, a company he co-founded and which continues to operate. Anirban has also served as Director of Applied Economics and Senior Economist for RESI, where he used his extensive knowledge of the Mid-Atlantic region to support numerous clients in their strategic decision-making processes. Clients have included the Maryland Department of Transportation, St. Paul Companies, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Players Committee and the Martin O'Malley mayoral campaign.