Retirement Crisis: Impoverished Seniors on the Horizon

The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) has published its
annual Retirement Confidence Survey that confirms what virtually all such
surveys have concluded: 1) that Americans are living longer; and 2) that they
do not have anywhere near enough saved for retirement. The truth is that
Americans do almost no thinking about what kind of retirement they want. They
mistakenly assume that Social Security is a retirement program, when in fact it
is a supplemental retirement program. The three legs of the retirement
"stool"—Social Security, a pension, and private savings—have all seen
some shrinkage in the past few years. For Social Security, all baby boomers
know the truth: We are going to be working longer, into our 70s, paying more
and getting less. Pensions are going away: International Business Machines
stopped providing pensions to new employees a couple years ago, and many are
facing reductions in their benefits. Regarding private savings, the EBRI survey
found that 57% report having less than $25,000 in household savings and
investments (excluding their home and pension benefits). This is for all
workers, so older workers would have more money, but other surveys show the
results are equally paltry. This is just the tip of the iceberg: American
households are so strapped that only half could come up with $2,000 in cash if
an unexpected need arose in the next month.

Source/more: CNBC
Read the EBRI report.