58% of Americans saving for retirement, survey reveals

The Retirement Confidence Survey, released April 5, shows 58 percent of American workers are currently saving for retirement, but 45 percent of all workers say their total household assets, minus the value of their homes, amounts to less than $25,000.

Still, Americans remain optimistic about retirement and say they believe the money will be there when the time comes, said Employee Benefit Research Institute CEO Dallas Salisbury in a news release.

“In the 14 years that we have done the RCS, the aggregate level of worker confidence in having enough money to retire comfortably seems to remain unrelated to whatever economic conditions exist,” Salisbury said. “America appears to be a nation of optimists when it comes to retirement, but for some people, the retirement dream may turn into a nightmare.”

Salisbury said that 24 percent of workers are very confident and 44 percent are somewhat confident about their retirement savings. He said nearly half of all workers who have not saved for retirement are somewhat confident with the expectation that money will inevitably come from somewhere else.

The survey gives several reasons for the stagnant figures and provides tips to those wondering how to save their money wisely.

“Doing a retirement-needs calculation every year can help you to determine if you are on track to reach your financial goals,” American Savings Education Council President Don Blandin said in a news release. “The survey finds that doing a savings-need calculation appears to be effective in prompting people to make changes in their financial behavior.”

Forty-three percent of workers who did a retirement-needs calculation made changes to their planning. Of those, 57 percent began saving more money, 19 percent changed the allocation of the money, 13 percent researched other saving methods, 2 percent lowered their debt and 1 percent started saving for the first time.

Mathew Greenwald, president of Greenwald and Associates, said in the release that survey results indicate that many workers believe they will receive enough retirement money from their employers, but employer retirement plans have been on the decline.

“Workers may be overestimating the likelihood of receiving some retirement benefits from their employer,” he said. “Employers have cut back substantially on the provision of defined benefit pension plans and retiree medical benefits, yet even younger workers are just as likely to expect to receive those benefits as current retirees are to have them.”

Other survey findings include:

• Workers are not saving for retirement because they think they can work long past the normal retirement age, they have low expectations of how much they will need and most do not expect their standard of living to change in retirement.

• Workers also tend to avoid saving because most do not know when they will be eligible for Social Security retirement benefits without a reduction for early retirement, and many believe the government and employers should contribute more to retirement funding.

• Workers are better educated by individual and paper-based teachings than by computer and Internet resources.

Of all sources of retirement information, 80 percent of workers say they use retirement benefit statements from their employer, 63 percent use brochures and 53 percent use newsletters and magazines.

Thirty-four percent of workers say they received retirement educational materials or seminars from their employer or related retirement planner in the last year, down from 47 percent in 2003.

Of those who are offered retirement advice through an employer, 9 percent of workers implemented the recommendations, 67 percent implemented some of them and 24 percent implemented none.