Americans Unprepared for Retirement

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a front-page story on something we've been talking about for a long time: Too many Americans are financially unprepared for their retirement. Some of the key figures from that article:

• The recession has reduced the number of people who feel like they can afford to save for retirement. The percentage of workers who have put some money away declined from 75 percent in 2009 to 66 percent today.
• In 2008, 49 percent of all workers said they had less than $25,000 put away for retirement, but now that number has risen to 57 percent.
• Defined benefit pensions have become almost nonexistent. In 1979, 28 percent of private-sector workers had a traditional pension, but today only 3 percent do.
• Only half of the retirees surveyed said they could come up with $2,000 for emergency purposes if the need arose.