One-third (34%) of workers believe they may outlive their retirement savings. Among individuals who make less than $25,000, 54% believe they run the risk of outliving their retirement savings. This, according to the 14th annual national Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) released today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), American Savings Education Council (ASEC), and Mathew Greenwald & Associates.Men are slightly more confident than women (65% versus 61%) when it comes to believing they will not outlive their retirement savings, and married people are more confident than non-married individuals (66% versus 58%). When it comes to long-term care (LTC) in retirement, 51% of workers are confident that they will have enough money to pay for LTC expenses.
"Despite numerous studies that show that Americans underestimate the amount they need to save for retirement and how long they will need to make their retirement savings last -- nor do they realize that the average cost of a private room in a nursing home is $66,000 annually -- many individuals are still confident that they will not run out of money," said C. Robert Henrikson, president of MetLife's U.S. Insurance and Financial Services businesses. MetLife is an underwriter of the 2004 national Retirement Confidence Survey.
"This false sense of security is disturbing considering that even those individuals who have built a relatively large nest egg do not know how much income that nest egg will produce throughout their retirement. In short, Americans don't know what their savings are really worth," he said.
Rhe 2004 RCS shows that most workers say they and/or their spouse have saved money for retirement (68%), but the amount they have saved is low. The survey finds that 45% of all workers report total household assets, excluding the value of their home, of less than $25,000. The proportion of workers who say they are saving for retirement has remained unchanged since 2001.
Source: MetLife, EBRI
