Today I reviewed an article concerning retirement preparedness for people 55 and older. The article, which I won’t name, stated that according to the General Accounting Office (GAO), 48% of the population did not have retirement savings. The GAO defines Retirement Savings as 401k, 403b, 457 or IRA. Pension-holding individuals were counted only if they did not also contribute to a retirement account.
However, the latest government statistics (2016) show that 29% of the population had neither a pension plan nor retirement savings, which is a far lower number than the 48% listed in the article. 26% of households 55 and older had retirement savings but no pension, and 20% had a defined pension plan but no savings. The government also noted that 26% of the population 55 and older had both retirement savings and a pension plan.
When we add all these numbers up, we see that 71% of the population has some type of savings or pension in retirement. Less than 1/3 has nothing at all, which matches earlier studies.
Our fear is that the bombardment of negative lies concerning the state of the nation’s elder population is harming the political dialogue. Not only are people being scared into buying things they may not need, and/or working longer than necessary, but also, legislation is being proposed that serves no purpose but to enrich some companies (that do not need enrichment) at the expense of the people the legislation is designed to protect!
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