The disconnect is even greater among younger workers, with 64 percent of millennials saying they're “in control” but at the same time 60 percent of them saying they live paycheck to paycheck. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Are U.S. workers too optimistic about retirement? Apparently so, as yet another study indicates that although more American workers are feeling positive about their finances, they really shouldn't be so cheerful.
According to MetLife's 17th annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study, lots of workers are not financially healthy, even if 63 percent feel financially confident.
Half of employees admit to living paycheck to paycheck; only 57 percent have a savings cushion of about three months of their salary; and 30 percent of those with a defined contribution retirement plan have already had to pull money out of it.
Then there's financial stress. Finances are the top reason that workers are stressed, the study finds, and the number of employees saying they're less productive at work because of financial woes has risen from 17 percent to 31 percent, a total of 14 percent, over the last five years.
Employers hesitating over boosting pay and benefits might want to be concerned about these numbers, since financial stress has a direct impact on them: stressed employees are more likely to be unhappy and less likely to be loyal and engaged—and maybe even less healthy.
Financial wellness programs are a big deal these days, although just 20 percent of employers offer such programs to their workers. It's not that workers don't want or need to learn more about managing the money they have and planning for their futures.
They do, with the MetLife study finding that 80 percent of workers want access to financial planning workshops or financial wellness tools.
And maybe they really need a dose of financial reality, since despite that majority of workers who say they feel financially confident, their top source of stress is personal finances.
The disconnect is even greater among younger workers, with 64 percent of millennials saying they're “in control” but at the same time 60 percent of them saying they live paycheck to paycheck. Something is definitely wrong with this picture.
And although 76 percent say they're willing to make short-term financial sacrifices to have a secure retirement, just 50 percent have some sort of direct allocation of money from their paychecks to a savings account.
Medical bills don't help their long-term goals, with 63 percent of employees being behind on retirement savings goals thanks to such bills.
In addition, 52 percent of employees say they're planning to postpone retirement thanks to their financial situation—and that's up 15 percent since 2015.
Women are particularly at risk, less likely to have a budget, more likely to be living paycheck to paycheck and less likely to have a savings cushion of 3 months of salary—but of course that could be due to the fact that women are also likely to be making considerably less than men, leaving them with substantially less disposable (or savable) income.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
