My eating habits have always tended toward what my mother politely calls "finicky." Oh, she tried repeatedly over the years to broaden my horizons but without much success. My wife has similarly tried to expand and improve my dietary choices over the years, but even with the admonition of needing to set a good example for my kids, (my) old habits die hard. In exasperation, she'll frequently say, "Have you ever even tried _____?"
One of the more surprising findings from the 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey was that fewer than half of respondents indicate they (or their spouse) have EVER tried to calculate how much money they will need to have saved so that they can live comfortably in retirement.
What's even more surprising, of course, is that that percentage has held fairly consistent for the past decade, "peaking" at 53 percent in 2000, before slipping to 38 percent in 2002. It's recovered since, of course, but still—in this day and age, with so many free and easy-to-access tools available, despite the pressures of daily life and finances, it's hard to imagine that so many have still not even bothered to make a single attempt to do so.
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As you might expect, some are more likely to do a retirement savings needs calculation than others. Married workers are more likely to have done so than singles, and the likelihood of doing the calculation increases with household income, education, and financial assets. Moreover, workers reporting that they, or their spouse, have an IRA, defined contribution, or defined benefit retirement plan are more than twice as likely as those who do not have these to have done a calculation (56 percent vs. 25 percent).
There do appear to be benefits—both emotional and tangible—to doing a retirement needs calculation. Consistent with prior RCS findings, despite having set higher savings goals, workers who have done a retirement savings needs calculation are more likely to feel very confident about affording a comfortable retirement (25 percent vs. 13 percent who have not done a calculation in this year's survey). In fact, a previous EBRI analysis found that those using an online calculator appeared to set more adequate savings targets, as measured by the probability of not running short of money in retirement.
So, why haven't more done a retirement needs calculation? Perhaps they're nervous about the time and energy it might take to do one; maybe they're worried they don't know enough to do the calculation; it might even be, particularly if they've made no preparations for retirement, that they are afraid to find out the answer.
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