One in Five American Workers Believe They Will Never Fully Retire

The Golden Years are losing their sheen. Data have revealed for more than a decade that most Americans have not saved enough to retire in even reduced circumstances. Now, however, the reality is beginning to sink in.

It would be comforting, from the standpoint of intergenerational schadenfreude, to think that this is just a case of those arrogant, selfish Boomers getting what's coming to them. Decades of self-indulgence finally confronting those who lived beyond their means. That might be satisfying, but it would be incomplete, at best. Gen Xers and Yers, many of whom shared the assumption that life would be even better for them than for their parents are discovering that the post financial crisis economy may be even less secure for them. At least some of their parents have pensions. And assets. And savings.

The crisis and ensuing recession deferred and may have permanently damaged the futures they had planned. Boomers will not be able to pass along the wealth they themselves inherited from their forebears because so much of it was lost in the crash. Housing, generally the centerpiece of many Americans' holding, have declined considerably in value - to the extent that those who owned homes were able to hang on to them.

From another perspective, there may, perhaps, be nothing wrong with having to work into old age. The notion of retirement is a relatively recent one, a product of the wealth and productivity created by the industrial wonders of the mid 20th Century. It might well be that the concept of a comfortable retirement is unsupportable in a truly competitive global economy, a transitory notion that reflected the dislocations and imbalances of the post WWII era. But it may also be the case that the financialization of the US economy diverted the benefits for the many through its relentless dispensations to the few. The societies affected will have to determine how much these lost opportunities meant to them and what they are willing to do about it. JL

Ricardo Lopez reports in the Los Angeles Times:

One in five American workers said they wouldn't be able to fully retire, according to the report. The percentage is roughly the same in Britain.
A global survey conducted by HSBC Holdings found that one in eight workers expect to never be able to retire fully.

The report, released Wednesday, surveyed 16,000 people in 15 countries and found disparities among workers' expectations in the U.S., Britain and other countries.
Five years after the financial crisis, the United States economy is still recovering, with an elevated jobless rate of 7.3%. Wages have stagnated and low interest rates put in place by the Federal Reserve have slowed savings by Americans.
Among those who have retired, nearly 40% said their income was less than they had previously expected. A third of those workers said they blamed the financial crisis for wiping out much of their nest egg.
"Generating an adequate income in retirement remains a major challenge for most people, given the financial conditions created by the global economic downturn," said Simon Williams, group head of wealth management for HSBC. "Today’s workers should prepare for retirement as early as possible to have some certainty."
The survey reported that 63% of retirees feared they had not saved enough to live on and 70% regretted not having saved more.