Americans Want to Retire Before FRA, But Many Regret Not Saving Enough

Sep 27, 2019 / Amanda Chase, Horsesmouth Assistant Editor

The American Dream may have changed since the days of pensions, but one thing remains the same: the desire to retire. Almost half of non-retired Americans (49%) see themselves retiring before age 67, according to a new NerdWallet survey. But they might want to consider whether they’re doing what it takes to reach that goal. More than half of today’s retirees (54%) have regrets about the way they saved for retirement, and their No. 1 regret is not saving aggressively enough.

While most Americans who aren’t yet retired do think they’ll be able to retire someday (85%), around 1 in 12 (8%) think they’ll never be able to retire. The top reason? They don’t think they’ll have enough money saved for retirement (54%).

More than one-third of retired Americans (36%) say it wasn’t their personal choice to retire when they did. Some left the workforce early because their health required them to stop working (18%) or they lost their job and were unable to find another (9%).

Among those not currently retired, men are more likely to have retirement savings than women (59% vs. 43%), and the men who have saved are also slightly more likely to have saved more, on average, than their female counterparts ($279,000, on average, vs. $220,000, on average). This may be a problem because statistically, women have longer life expectancies.

Find more results from the NerdWallet and Harris Poll survey here.

 

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