America's Retirement Plans

When it comes to being prepared for retirement, about half the country thinks it’s in pretty good shape. According to a new survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 49 percent of those who aren’t yet retired say they are “saving enough for a retirement in which [they] will have a desirable standard of living.” Which half are you in?

Most of the questions saw similar splits. Some 54% said they “have a savings plan with specific goals.”  Another 43% said they “have a spending plan that allows [them] to save enough money to achieve the goals of [their] saving plan.” And 49% said they know their net worth.

Perhaps the most disheartening part of the survey was that there has been no real progress in building up America’s saving habits, despite the economic recovery. There was no improvement in these indicators between February 2012 and February 2013 – the number of people saying they had sufficient emergency savings actually dropped from 66 percent to 65 percent and among the non-retired, and the number saving enough for retirement dropped from 51 percent to 49 percent.