People wish they’d saved more and earlier for retirement.
That was the upshot of the latest TIAA-CREF Ready to Retire survey, which probed participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans about retirement and saving.
Probably unsurprisingly, more than half (52 percent) of those aged 55-64 wish they’d started saving earlier for retirement, and 47 percent said they’d wished they saved more out of each paycheck. Also, 34 percent said they wished they’d invested those savings more aggressively.
While 45 percent said that financial readiness is the most important factor in when they decide to exit the workforce, only 32 percent said they’ve calculated how much income they’ll need in retirement.
Along those lines, people are apparently envisioning a retirement with less — maybe a lot less.
Among respondents, 42 percent said they intend to work part-time even after retirement, with 39 percent saying they’ll cut back on spending for entertainment and luxuries, and 23 percent plan to downsize/downgrade where they live so it’s not so expensive.
This is despite the fact that 57 percent said that what they actually want in retirement is more flexibility to do “what they want, when they want.”
Reality has intruded on their vision of days of freedom, and 68 percent say they feel unprepared for what lies ahead.
Many (45 percent) fear they won’t be able to meet monthly expenses in retirement; 35 percent worry that what lies ahead includes hefty medical expenses. And 32 percent are concerned about the effects of inflation on their retirement savings.
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