Fewer Americans are blowing their retirement savings on cars, televisions and electronics when they quit their jobs. Most workers who choose to take a lump-sum distribution from their retirement plan roll it into an IRA or other savings vehicle or use that money to pay down debt or buy a house.
Only a small percentage of workers—7.5 percent—spent their lump sum retirement savings on mindless consumption when they left their job in 2012, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That’s a major improvement from years past. In 1993, for instance, 22.7 percent of those who received a distribution blew the money on nonessentials. That figure dropped to 15.1 percent through 2003.
The number of workers who roll their accounts into tax-qualified savings accounts has increased sharply since 1993, according to EBRI, with 45.2 percent of those receiving a distribution through 2012 doing so.
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