The Good News from Retirement Past

Everyone is nervous about how long their retirement savings will last. But looking back at previous decades, the nest eggs of past retirees were remarkably resilient, so much so that for many in their golden years, investment returns on retirement savings outpaced drawn down rates.

According to analysis from the BlackRock Retirement Institute, retirees who began leaving the workforce in the early 1990s were able to preserve the vast majority of their savings throughout retirement. Using data from the Employee Benefits Research Institute, BlackRock’s analysis shows that the wealthiest households held 83 percent of their savings nearly two decades after retirement.

Savers in the median wealth bracket retained 77 percent of retirement savings, and those in the lowest wealth bracket retained 80 percent. However, many of these were pension plans, which are now down to 2 percent of all retirement savings plans.