Cue the sad trombone—Americans are far off in retirement savings and it’s only getting worse.
“The vast majority of American workers of any age will be unable to replicate and maintain their standard of living if they retire fully from working at age 65,” according to the Stanford Center on Longevity.
Overall, it uncovered disconcerting trends in three areas of well-being key to living longer and better: financial security, social engagement and healthy lifestyles.
Most indicated that Americans, as a society, “are moving in the wrong direction.”
“Americans are more sedentary today than in generations past and fewer report being socially connected within their communities compared to 20 years ago,” the Center notes.
The most prominent downward trends, however, emerged in financial security.
“This is not surprising given that we are witnessing unprecedented shifts in life expectancy, and at the same time, experiencing a period of unprecedented economic uncertainty. In concert, these shifts put generations of Americans at enormous risk for lifetimes of financial insecurity.”
The trends, it adds, are especially steep for younger generations, the less educated, ethnic minorities, and women.
“In the past century, the developed world has experienced a rapid, transformative, biological shift in aging resulting in a modern-day miracle where people can realistically expect to enjoy 100-year lives.
“How we are doing as a society after being gifted with an additional 30 plus years of life?” it rhetorically asks. “Are we taking full advantage of this gift? Or are we missing the mark, reaching old age ill-prepared and in worse shape than preceding generations?”
For this reason, the Center launched the Sightlines Project in 2016, to “paint a bird’s eye portrait” of how well Americans are living in this newfound era of longevity.
It zoomed in on four areas: generational shifts in U.S. home ownership, prognosis of Americans’ retirement contributions, Baby Boomer savings and debt, and women’s financial decision making.
All findings are segmented by age group and prevalent sociodemographic factors including education, income, marital status, and ethnicity.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
