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A report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies finds that while savers overall have managed to sock away an average of $50,000 (estimated median) in all retirement accounts, that's definitely not the case for all demographic groups.
In fact, according to A Compendium of Findings About U.S. Workers, the variations among those groups are pretty dramatic. While workers with an annual household income of $100,000 or more have saved an estimated median of $222,000 in all household retirement accounts, those in the $50,000–$99,000 income bracket have only come up with about $47,000.
It's even worse for those who don't even hit the $50,000 mark in annual income, who have only managed to put away a mere $3,000.
College graduates, as one might expect, have also outpaced the retirement savings of nongraduates, having saved $160,000 compared with a scant $23,000. And men of course have outsaved women, hardly surprising considering the obstacles to savings and income levels that women face: Men are looking at retirement cushions of $76,000, while women have only managed to squirrel away $23,000.
Despite these disparities, the survey reports that 63 percent of workers are confident that they will be able to fully retire with a comfortable lifestyle, including 18 percent who are "very confident" and 45 percent who are "somewhat confident." In fact, 54 percent agree that they are building a large enough retirement nest egg—and interestingly, even 49 percent of part-time workers agree they are building a large enough retirement nest egg—although 56 percent of full-timers say the same.
That said, the Great Recession has left an enduring mark, with 59 percent of workers overall saying they haven't fully recovered; that includes 37 percent who say they've somewhat recovered, 14 percent who say they haven't yet begun to recover and eight percent who say they may never recover.
On the optimistic side, 41 percent of workers say they have either fully recovered (20 percent) or weren't impacted by the Great Recession (21 percent).
And even though 80 percent of workers who plan to work after retirement say it's for financial reasons, they may not be able to follow through on that plan—particularly since 74 percent of workers overall say they're worried about their health in retirement. That includes 51 percent who are somewhat concerned and 23 percent who are very concerned.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
