More than a third of working baby boomers and half of Gen Xers have accumulated less than $100,000 in retirement savings, and most workers expect to delay retirement because it has been too challenging to save, according to Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s 2024 annual report on retirement trends.

Released today, the report’s finding is reflected in its title, “Planning: The Missing Link to Retirement Security.” The low rate of savings, even for people who have access to retirement plans (and an employer match), is a problem that needs to be solved, said Chris Ceder, a senior retirement strategist involved in industry and retirement research, who presented the report during an online press conference.

“One of the things that always struck us was the fact that, at least in our business, we think about 401(k) plans, 403(b) [plans], which are inherently ‘retirement plans.’ The reality is these retirement plans, they don't offer planning,” said Ceder. “Here's a whole host of people who need advice who frankly just don't get it. It's not just people who have higher assets that need these planning resources. It certainly is the broad cohort of retirement savers who need these resources.”

Those doing the least well were DIY investors, households with less in total assets, women and Gen Xers. Other cohorts were doing better, including men and households with higher assets.

The retirement savings environment has improved in the last year, the report found, thanks to stabilized and lowering inflation and strong markets. However, 60% of workers surveyed said that the challenges of balancing financial priorities—childcare, student loans, daily expenses and eldercare—have made it so hard to save that they expect they will have to delay their own retirement because of it.

While 77% of working respondents felt they would reach their goal eventually, 62% of workers and 45% of retirees had accumulated less than $200,000 in retirement savings. And when the numbers are broken out by age group, 38% of retirees, 39% of working boomers and 50% of Gen Xers said they had accumulated less than $100,000 in retirement savings.  

“This is likely not sufficient to fund a 20-plus year retirement,” the report noted.

Twenty-seven percent of working respondents felt they would be delaying their retirement by one to three years, 9% said they would delay it by four to five years, and 10% thought they would delay five years or longer. Only 15 percent said their retirement delay would be less than a year.

What determined people’s higher savings was their level of education and whether they had a financial plan.

Pitfalls
The study illustrated the impact of some decisions: Those who started to save 10 years late, for instance, had 36% lower total retirement savings. Those who took eight years out of the workforce had 25% less, and those who took early retirement at age 62 had 25% less. Sometimes the pitfalls were beyond a worker’s control. For instance, enduring a 15% inflation spike led to 15% less in retirement savings.  

The 2024 survey polled 4,874 respondents in July, about two-thirds of whom were still working and one-third of whom were already retired.

Some of the survey’s findings echoed other, similar surveys in that workers consistently said they wanted more retirement savings and investing advice through their employer, whether they see themselves as real DIY savers or were looking for an introduction to an advisor.

The survey found that just 34% of respondents felt they had the time, interest and knowledge to effectively manage their own retirement investments, leaving 66% to feel that no matter what generation they actually belong to, they’re all part of the “YO-YO” (“You’re on your own”) generation.

And while 48% said they had the interest and knowledge, just not the time, to manage their own investments, only 20% were able to answer five literacy questions correctly.

A strong disconnect remains between what people think they’ll need in retirement and what retirees actually experience. For example, despite the low levels of savings, 77% of pre-retirees believe their retirement lifestyle will be the same as or better than their working lifestyle. In addition, while 77% of workers expect they’ll be able to continue to generate more than half of their working income when they retire, only 60% of retirees said they were actually able to sustain this level of employment.

The good news, the study found, is that younger generations seem to have accessed advice earlier in life, as 61% of Gen Z and 57% of millennials said they had a personalized plan for retirement savings, compared with 43% of Gen Xers.