Nearly three-quarters of Americans worry that they won't have enough money to retire or pay for health care costs in retirement, and nearly 50 percent are living paycheck to paycheck.
In the most recent Harris Interactive poll, only 41 percent of people who haven't retired yet believed that Social Security would still be around when they retire.
Sixty-three percent of Americans said they are putting money toward savings, with the top goals being a rainy day fund for unexpected costs and retirement. Priorities change in households with children. College savings rises in importance among respondents with children, largely at the expense of the rainy day and retirement savings accounts, the survey found.
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One-quarter of adults ages 18 to 35 said they are saving to purchase a car and 27 percent of all Americans said they are saving for a vacation.
An alarming 47 percent of respondents said they live paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to put money in savings. This trend is more common among younger Americans and those with children in their households.
Debt is not helping the situation, with 59 percent of Americans saying they would pay off debt rather than increase savings with unexpected funds.
"There is clear anxiety on the part of the American public regarding their day-to-day finances and those related to their futures," says David Krane, senior vice president of Harris Interactive. "Yet rather than creating products and services that could alleviate these concerns, bringing peace of mind to their customers, the financial services industry continues to focus its marketing on products and services related to spending and further debt accumulation. Companies that figure out how to take advantage of this missed opportunity are likely to be those that will rebound from the trust disadvantage that the industry now faces and grow their businesses."
This Harris Poll was conducted online in the United States from Aug. 13-20, 2012, among 2,307 adults age 18 and over.
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