People are trying to save for retirement, but face lots of problems—with high financial stress being one of them.
That's according to new research from the John Hancock Retirement Plan Services 2015 Retirement Stress Survey, which found that although 42 percent of respondents overall have started saving for retirement, and 43 percent say they're either on track or ahead of schedule in retirement savings, just 20 percent have actually figured out how much they'll need in retirement.
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Among those with incomes of less than $50,000, 34 percent are too worried about their current situation even to worry about saving for retirement, while more than half of the people in that income range have no savings at all.
Compare that with people who work with a financial advisor, 70 percent of whom who say they are on track or ahead of schedule.
Among those who don't have an advisor, only 33 percent say they're on track or ahead of schedule.
Among people who have an advisor, more than a third had determined how much to save for retirement and half had contributed to an IRA; for people without an advisor, only 14 percent knew how much they'd need for retirement and 16 percent had contributed to an IRA.
Forty-one percent of respondents are very worried about their financial situation, and long-term financial needs worry people more than do day-to-day financial obligations; 69 percent are worried about saving for retirement.
Forty-three percent of respondents believe they'll retire later than they originally planned, and 79 percent say that's because they can't afford to retire.
All that stress, whether about retirement savings or finances in general, takes a toll, and employers are sitting up and taking notice of what it's doing to their workers.
That's because it can contribute not just to increased absenteeism, but lost productivity even when employees are sitting right there at their desks—worrying about money instead of working.
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