Surprising Percentage of American Households Have Saved Nothing for Their Retirements

A new study has revealed that an astonishing 20% of Americans who are near retirement age haven’t saved any money toward their retirements.

According to an August 7 Washington Post article, the Federal Reserve’s recently-released survey of economic well-being among U.S. households is showing that even though more Americans are responsible for funding their retirements, most still aren’t saving as much money as they should.

Throughout every age group, 31% of those surveyed said they haven’t saved any money toward retirement and don’t have a pension from their employer, the Washington Post reported. Between the ages of 55 and 64, 19% of respondents hadn’t saved for retirement.

The likely reason behind this is that for many Americans, retirement is both out of sight and out of mind. Forty-one percent of people 18 to 29 years old reported that they never think about planning for retirement, reported the Washington Post.

Another reason such a significant proportion of the population has saved nothing for their retirements is that they truly don’t have the extra financial resources to do so, the Washington Post reported. This is especially true for people with part-time jobs, only 37% of whom have access to retirement savings plans from their employers.

The Federal Reserve’s survey also asked people how they would finance their retirements with no money saved up. 45% of respondents said they planned to rely on Social Security, and nearly 40% said they planned to keep working past retirement age.

Perhaps most telling is this statistic — only 18% of the survey’s respondents envisioned themselves having a traditional retirement.