Financial experts advise retiring with almost one million dollars in savings. But a 2022 study of retirement accounts found the typical American has saved about $35,000.
With fewer jobs offering pensions and more Americans living longer and depending on paltry social security, we’re facing a perfect storm of poverty-stricken seniors. Of course, families should be responsible by socking money away for their future, but the numbers show few can really pull it off. In a survey, about 50 percent of Americans said they could not even come up with $500 if faced with a sudden unexpected expense.
Most middle-class families live paycheck-to-paycheck, struggling to save for college and a mortgage. Realistically, how can families put 15% of their income into retirement savings every year, the figure experts advise? In the Bay Area, this advice is just not possible for most people.
And with today’s high inflation, the expectation that folks can put aside a million dollars for the future while trying to live a reasonably comfortable life in the present is not doable for all but the very wealthy.
I know someone in her twenties who jokes her retirement plan consists of assuming the world won’t exist by the time she reaches retirement age. Hopefully, like most of us, her retirement plan probably won’t be ready when she is.
With a Perspective, I’m Richard Swerdlow.
Richard Swerdlow is a retired teacher.
