What the gap between retirement expectations and reality tells us
While many working people worry about saving enough and outliving their money in retirement, retirees are far less panicked.
How much money Americans think they need for retirement and what retirees say they can live on are miles apart.
For many folks who are still on the job, the future looks bleak. But check in with retirees, and it turns out, things aren’t so bad. Several recent reports illustrate this duality.
Let’s start with the hand-wringing pre-retirees.
Americans with employer-provided retirement plans estimate that they will need $1.2 million to retire comfortably, according to a survey from investment manager Schroders. Nearly half expect to have less than $500,000.
Another study found that only 1 in 5 middle-class people are very confident in their ability to fully retire or maintain a comfortable lifestyle throughout their retirement.
So the pre-retirement panic is real.
Post-retirement? Eight in 10 retirees ages 65 through 80 say they have enough money to live comfortably, a new Gallup poll found.
“It’s a matter of the unknown,” Craig Copeland, director of Wealth Benefits Research at EBRI, told Yahoo Finance. “People don't know what to expect, don't know how much they have, and don't know how they'll be able to live. When they actually retire, they adapt.”
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Retirement concerns are 'terrifying'
About a quarter of non-retired folks say not having a regular paycheck is “terrifying,” Schroders found.
“The transition from retirement savings accumulation to the decumulation phase is not an easy one to make,” Deb Boyden, Schroders’s head of US defined contribution, told Yahoo Finance.
Asked to forecast how much monthly income they would need to live comfortably, workers said $4,947 on average, which is higher than the $4,258 of monthly income today’s retirees report they live on just fine.
Meanwhile, these worried pre-retirees are planning to start Social Security benefits before age 67 — the full retirement age for everyone born in 1960 or later. Just 1 in 10 plan to wait until at least 70 — the age you hit your monthly maximum benefit for the rest of your life.
It’s not that they aren't hip to the upside of delaying their checks. But they don’t care for these reasons: They’ll need the money and want it as soon as possible, and they’re worried Social Security will go kaput.
“Americans will pay a high price for taking their Social Security benefits early,” Boyden said. “The money generated by Social Security is the most reliable source of income for many retirees, and yet few maximize these payments.”
With so many Americans behind on retirement savings, waiting to collect Social Security benefits can have a significant impact on their quality of life once they’ve left the workforce, she said.
Read more: What is the retirement age for Social Security, 401(k), and IRA withdrawals?
Many retirees have enough money to live comfortably
The retirement reality versus expectations gap has been consistent across the 23 years Gallup has tracked views on retirement in its surveys.
“This generally positive picture of retirement contrasts with the more negative expectations among those who have yet to retire,” according to the report’s authors Frank Newport and Jeffrey M. Jones.
There are all kinds of reasons for better outcomes in retirement. The cost of living can turn out to be far less onerous due to lower healthcare bills thanks to Medicare enrollment, or cheaper housing costs if you move to a smaller home or relocate to a more affordable part of the country.
In this year’s survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research, nearly 4 in 5 retirees agree they are able to spend money how they want, and even more believe they are having the retirement lifestyle they envisioned.
Not only are retirees managing their current expenses, but also more than half say they are still saving for the future, Copeland said.
There are some important contributing factors. Namely, planning ahead.
Those who have thought about when they would claim Social Security and how that would impact their benefit amount, estimated how much income they would need, planned for how they would cover an emergency, and considered how many years they would spend in retirement have a leg up, according to the EBRI research.
“They’ve faced the big scary questions and realized they weren’t so bad,” Justin Samples, a wealth adviser at Ameriprise Financial, told Yahoo Finance.
Many retirees are also better prepared than they might realize, Samples said.
“For most people, getting their arms around what it takes to fund their current lifestyle is the first step to gain a realistic understanding of what they will need in the future.”
Then, periodic reviews and rebalancing of asset allocations can keep you on track when markets gyrate. Finally, seeking advice from a professional can cool the anxiety that comes with preparing for retirement. It certainly has for me.
“It’s also important to note many retirees have lived through multiple once-in-a-lifetime events, this century alone,” Samples said. “If as a retiree you’ve lived through a global financial crisis and a global pandemic and are still able to make ends meet, you’re likely to be fairly optimistic about your ability to handle what comes in the future.”
Read more: Retirement planning: A step-by-step guide
Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist, and the author of 14 books, including "In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in The New World of Work" and "Never Too Old To Get Rich." Follow her on X @kerryhannon.
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