Investing is not going to fund retirement, if the way many Americans are going about it is any indication. Instead, Social Security is.
So says Capital One ShareBuilder’s Financial Freedom Survey, which found that more than half of the people it polled (53 percent) expect that Social Security will fund at least part of their retirement.
Forty percent of millennials are looking to rely on Social Security, too, despite all the doom and gloom about its potential collapse.
Among all respondents, Social Security came in ahead of 401(k)s (48 percent will rely on them); pensions (32 percent); investment portfolios (23 percent); and IRAs (21 percent). Some people are even looking to real estate (22 percent) to help fund their golden years.
Why might this be? Well, Americans don’t trust the stock market, for one thing; 58 percent said distrust of the markets and the financial services industry is having a negative impact on their confidence about investing.
They also mentioned other hang-ups having to do with the process itself, including lack of investing knowledge and experience; lack of transparency; and investing complexity.
Ninety-one percent of Americans believe they should be socking something away for that rainy retirement day, but only 76 percent are doing so. A scant 24 percent are saving more than 10 percent. Not that they’re all spend-it-now types; 86 percent of those still in the workplace said they’re prepared to sacrifice today to be sure that they have a more comfortable retirement later.
Many of them aren’t talking about it, either, with 27 percent saying they never bring up the topic of retirement planning with a spouse or significant other.
Instead, they’d rather talk about religion (52 percent) or sex (43 percent) than money (42 percent), despite all the hours they spend worrying about it every year.
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