Retirement is increasingly becoming a luxury many American workers cannot afford. With rising housing costs and medical expenses and without the pensions that buoyed previous generations, millions of older Americans can’t stop working.
Social Security – which pays less than half of average wages and faces possible benefits cuts – doesn’t stretch far enough and many older Americans have too little stowed away in savings or 401(k) accounts to get by.
For decades, the combination of pensions − defined benefit plans − and Social Security made a dignified retirement possible for many.
Not today. Research from labor economist and professor at The New School for Social Research Teresa Ghilarducci shows just 10% of Americans between the ages of 62 and 70 who are retired are financially stable.
Without an intervention, the retirement savings crisis will only worsen as more Americans reach retirement age, said Kevin Prindiville, executive director of the nonprofit Justice in Aging.
“If we don’t take action, future generations will face an even more challenging retirement landscape,” Prindiville said.
