Americans understand that they should be saving more, according to the survey. While most respondents believed they should save 25 percent of their annual disposable income, they reported a paltry 5.5 percent rate.
Millennials, too, were realistic about their retirement needs amid the decline in employer pensions and the questionable future of entitlement programs like Social Security. They expected that 65 percent of their retirement income would have to come from personal sources.
Respondents said that living expenses and debt were the biggest barriers to retirement saving. Half of respondents say they have no positive role models when it comes to financial planning.
Respondents struggled with low financial confidence, lacking a financial role model and confusing jargon. Respondents were seven more times likely to say that personal finances were taboo than something to be discussed openly.
“I’ve become troubled that a lot of financial firms have found it captivating to make people terrified or scared about retirement,” Dychtwald said. “What we see is that the American public is resilient. They want to have a good life. They need help, but it shouldn’t be alarmist help.”
The industry’s pessimism about retirement is filtering down to younger generations, with more than half of millennial respondents saying a secure retirement is beyond their reach, compared to 30 percent of baby boomers who felt the same.
For the report, 4,854 adults over 25 years old were surveyed by phone and 2,500 online during August and September.