People always grapple with whether or not they’re on track or behind in terms of their retirement savings. Are they going to get to where they need to be by the time retirement rolls around?
- You know, when you’re 23, you’re not thinking about 65 or 70.
- It seems like an uphill battle.
- You know, it’s just very scary. Because of how much money I thought I had, and just watching how quickly you go through it. I’m a little nervous.
Bankrate is always checking on the retirement security of Americans and where they stand. We look into whether Americans are saving more or saving less for retirement than they had the year prior. This year’s results: pretty encouraging.
We found that the percentage of Americans that are actually saving less for retirement this year than last year was just 14%. That’s less than half of what it was back in 2011 when we first asked the questions. And it’s been steadily trending lower. And on the other hand, the percentage of Americans that are saving more for retirement this year than they were last year is up to 19% and that one’s been inching higher over the course of the last several years.
- We’re planning ahead; we’re planning for college; we’re planning for retirement. It’s just built into our money strategy.
- I think when I was younger I would just spend spend spend. And now, I know I need to think about the future and actually save money and have better credit.
- I had an uncle that used to say just put 2% of your weekly salary away, and I’ve been doing that for 20, 30 years.
Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. We did find that 10% of Americans have not contributed to their retirement accounts either this year or last year. And that 10% figure is the highest we’ve seen since we started asking these questions dating back to 2011.
- I don’t have children, so I can’t depend on anybody. It’s just my husband and I who take care of ourselves.
- It’s kind of daunting. There are so many unknowns.
- Going to college and going through college, I thought it would be easier to arrange your life and it’s proven not to be that easy.
- We started saving for retirement a couple years ago, but now we’re trying to figure out whether to put more towards retirement or to put more towards college.
Well, check out the calculators at Bankrate.com. Not only to let you know how much you’re going to need for that lifestyle you envision in retirement, but also to figure out how much you need to save to get there. The retirement calculators are the best place to start.