Over three-quarters (77% to be exact) of middle-income earners are setting aside more money for retirement than they initially intended to, a survey from Principal Financial Group found. The data paints a more promising picture of retirement readiness than some may have expected.

HerMoney CEO and co-founder Jean Chatzky joins Brad Smith on Wealth! to break down the numbers.

"We hear story after story about a retirement crisis, about the fears that people have, that they won't have enough money to live the retirement that they want, and here we're looking at middle-income people, people who make between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, they're putting away almost 8% of their own money," Chatzky says.

She notes that a 15% saving rate would be preferable, "but this is huge, and it really shows that people have gotten the message about the importance of putting saving for their own future atop the list of other financial priorities."

Chatzky outlines how different generations stack up in terms of retirement readiness. "We're seeing that Gen Z, they are rock stars... Gen Z is starting to save ten years earlier on average than members of Generation X, also than members of the Baby Boom generation."

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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.