Baby Boomers Don’t Have Enough Saved
An April 2018 Gallup poll found that 41% of people plan to work past age 65—a 27.5% increase from 1995 when Gallup starting tracking this sentiment. Why the change? Because upcoming retirees haven’t saved enough for retirement. According to a recent study, 45% of baby boomers have no retirement savings. For those with something saved, the median balance for those born between 1948 and 1953 was $290,000. For those born between 1954 and 1959, they had saved around $209,000. Those numbers might not sound too alarming but that $290,000 in retirement savings equates to about $12,000 per year using the standard 4% withdrawal rate. Even adding in Social Security benefits of $18,528, an average Baby Boomer is only bringing in about $30,528 per year. Hardly an income a person can live on comfortably. A 2019 report from the Insured Retirement Institute found that 70% of Baby Boomers believe they will need at least $55,000 in annual income to retire comfortably at age 65. That would require their retirement accounts to produce an additional $275,000 from ages 65-70 in combination with Social Security benefits, pensions, and personal savings.
But It May Not Be Their Fault
Baby Boomers have the unfortunate challenge of retiring soon after the recession. The youngest boomers started retiring in 2011, only a few years after the economy crashed. Although markets have recovered to record levels as of 2019, many lost large amounts of their savings through panic selling of assets while others have struggled to recover. A 2017 study from the Center for a Secure Retirement found that 65% of boomers didn’t believe they have seen any benefit from the recovery.
Younger Generations Are Struggling, Too
Have younger generations learned from the retirement saving mistakes of baby boomers? Looking strictly at the numbers, the answer is largely, yes. According to a 2016 GoBankingRates survey, millennials ages 18 to 34 are 40% more likely to not have retirement savings than Gen Xers and 50% more likely than people over the age of 55 not to. However, 3 out of 5 millennials have started a retirement fund and older millennials are more likely to have retirement savings. A little over half of Gen Xers have less than $10,000 in retirement savings but the Great Recession cost this generation 45% of their net worth on average. Add to that kids reaching adult age and heading to college, aging parents, mortgages and other financial obligations, and one can see why adequately saving for retirement is a tough task. But 40% of older Gen Xers have $50,000 or more saved for retirement. Looking at just this 40%, the average account balance is over $200,000.
A Financial Adviser May Be Able to Help
One interesting fact—a report issued by a financial industry trade group found that working with a financial adviser helped to beat the odds. Seven in 10 boomers who had worked with a financial adviser felt confident about their retirement savings. Just one-third of those who hadn’t worked with an adviser reported the same level of confidence.
Making the Most of It
Despite what the financial data show, in 2018 55% of boomers reported satisfaction with how things are going in their lives versus 47% in 2017 and 43% in 2016. Although retirement savings might be lacking among baby boomers, they’re finding ways to live happy lives despite the financial belt tightening.
