Worrying About the ‘Golden Years’

One of the biggest concerns coming out of this recession has been our retirement.The markets took a dive- taking with them our 401(k) hopes...but as the market rebounds - there are still major worries for Americans of all ages, and all incomes about whether our golden years will actually be all that golden.A new poll by the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows more than a quarter of us is not at all confident about having enough savings for a comfortable retirement. That's an all time high - and up 5% from just last year.Only 13% of Americans are actually very confident about the future.This could be why: less than half say they, or their spouse, have tried to calculate how much money they will need to save.And people aren't saving. The survey found more than half of respondents have less than $25,000 dollars, and nearly 30% have savings under $1,000.Another problem - very few think Social Security will be there for them when they retire. Six in 10 Americans are not optimistic.

And age does matter – 70% of those under the age of 50 are not counting on Social Security, while two-thirds of those over the age of 50 are in fact hopeful they'll be able to reap the benefits of the entitlement program.Yet that same amount doesn't want to see the retirement age raised to 69, to help keep Social Security solvent.Even still - a third of those asked expect to retire after the age of 65, compared with just about 10% 20 years ago.

And it's not just the middle and working class that feel this way about retirement—even the millionaires say they're sweating it out. Nearly half of the millionaires polled by Fidelity Investments said they did not feel wealthy. To feel wealthy and confident for the future, they would need nearly $7.5 million.Americans of all shapes and sizes, ages and careers, are worried about the future and that's no way for us to be.We need to be saving more and relying on the government less.

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