Nearly half of Americans have no savings for retirement—and many do not seem to care.
In a survey released in early October, GoBankingRates.com, an educational and financial information resource for consumers, found that 45.5% of the 2,003 adults of all ages who were polled said they have nothing saved for retirement.
Another 18.8% have less than $10,000 put away to support what could be a 30-year retirement, the survey said. Another 12.3% have between $10,000 and $49,999 saved.
Surprisingly, 48% said they did not care how much, or how little, they have saved, and half of those who said they have nothing saved said they were not concerned. Not surprisingly, the younger the respondent, the less he or she cared about retirement savings.
Various reasons were given for not saving. Forty-five percent said they do not make enough money to save, 24.4% said they are struggling to pay regular bills, and 9.2% said they feel they do not need retirement savings.
The percentage of those who have nothing saved decreases with age. Sixty-three percent of Gen Zers have $0 saved, 54% of millennials have $0 saved, and 33% of respondents age 65 and older have nothing saved.
“We run a lot of these surveys, and year over year the savings rate is improving a little, but there are still just a lot of people who are not big savers,” said Joel Anderson, in-house writer on investing for GoBankingRates.com. “Some said they do not make enough money to save for retirement and others said they were struggling to pay bills, which is sort of the same answer. It shows that a lot of people are not getting the wage increases they need to be financially stable.”
The people who say they are not concerned about retirement savings probably are not the ones who are taking advantage of a financial advisor, but advisors should do what they can to increase communication about the importance of saving, Anderson said.