A Grim Outlook for Retirement? - Yahoo!Finance
Reporting on the results of The 2021 Global Retirement Index (GRI) by asset management company Natixis Investment Managers, Yahoo!Finance writer Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy reports that many future retirees feel a miracle is in order for them to realize a secure retirement. The Bizouati-Kennedy post cites the long-term impact of COVID-19 on savings plans, as well as the contributing effects of inflation, interest rates, and public debt as factors that have created a pessimistic outlook among the survey’s respondents, distributed categorically this way: “46% of Generation Y, 45% of Generation X and 30% of Baby Boomers, believe they will need a miracle to be able to retire securely.” You can access the Bizouati-Kennedy post here…
But despair aside, it’s interesting to point out that the respondents–73% of them–acknolwedge that they own the responsibility for building their personal retirement nest eggs, and there appears to be a shared recognition that relying on pensions and programs like Social Security will not get them to the finish line in their financial planning goals. Correspondingly, roughly 6 in 10 have the opinion that they’ll need to extend their working years beyond original plans, while more than a third believe they’ ll never have sifficident money to retire. All-in-all, a pretty bleak outlook, at least according to the 8,500 worldwide participants in the index study. And, in case you’re wondering, the United States was ranked 17th in the world (down from 16th last year) in terms of its citizens’ views on retirement security.
It’s an interesting study, certainly, but with 8,500 participants out of a world population of almost 8 billion, the sampling may not accurately portray thoughts and attitudes granularly enough to help craft policy. Nevertheless, the rankings and survey statistics do point out feelings about retirtementr security that reflect what we’ve seen in this country, including concerns for the long-term health of one of our key old-age support systems–Social Security. If you’re interested, you can download the full study document here, and get a clearer perspective on how the U.S. compares to feelings on retirement security around the world.