Americans and Their View of Retirement Preparation
A new survey of 1,700 Americans between the ages 25 and 65+ examines their confidence levels with regards to having enough money for a comfortable life during retirement, with some fascinating and shocking results. The study was commissioned by Gold IRA Guide, a renowned online magazine covering alternative investments for IRA and 401kaccount holders.
Survey Questions & Findings
The survey asked 1,700 Americans the following question along with three possible answers:
How confident they felt they would have enough money to live comfortably when they retired?
- Somewhat confident
- Not Confident
- Very Confident
“Somewhat Confident” is the winning answer overall, with “Not Confident” coming as close second
According to the findings of the survey, when asked how confident they felt that they would have enough money to live comfortably when they retired, 40.6% of respondents answered “somewhat confident”. When demographic filters were applied, that percentage increased to 43%, with 55 to 64 year olds.
The most compelling results from the survey, comes with the second most popular response. Of the survey respondents, 32.4% said they were “not confident” that they would be able to comfortably retire with enough money – making that almost a third of all who responded to the survey.
The results become even more intriguing, if not shocking, when demographic filters were applied specifically to females. According to the survey results, 38.3% of females between females 25 to 54years old indicated this response. These results seem to unfortunately address the pressing socioeconomic issue of gender pay gap.
This if further corroborated regarding the final response – 26.9% of respondents said they were “very confident” that they would have enough money to live comfortably during retirement. However, when demographic filters were applied to reflect specifically males, 31.2% surveyed indicated “very confident” – thus making that the second most popular answer amongst men. In addition, the survey also found a steady percentage increase for the “very confident” response amongst older males: 31% of males between 45 to 54, 36.4% of males 55 to 64, and 40.3% of males 65+, respectively.
“This survey is a real eye-opener. Most importantly, it inadvertently seems to address the issue of the wage disparity between men and women, and how things have to change,” stated Mark Turner, CEO of Gold IRA Guide.
The overall conclusion from the survey findings is the dramatically different sentiment towards retirement income confidence between men and women. Nearly 40% of the women of working age, who participated in the survey, indicated that they were not confident they would not have sufficient money to live comfortably during retirement.
Despite positive economic numbers, and a great confidence in the stock market, this survey highlights how worried Americans are about their retirement savings.
