“Older adults fearful they could outlive savings: survey,” by Kathleen Steele Galvin, McKnight’s Senior Living 

“‘A runaway majority of seniors think the United States is in a retirement savings crisis,’ according to the results of the Retirement Savings Crisis Survey from American Advisors Group. …

By the numbers:

  • 89% affirmed their believe that a retirement savings crisis exists;
  • 43% rated the condition of their retirement savings as fair or poor;
  • 47% said that they are finding it difficult to save for retirement;
  • 44% said that they believe that they have not saved enough to retire comfortably;
  • 57% said that they are only somewhat optimistic or not optimistic at all; that their level of savings will last through retirement;
  • Almost 40% said they are worried about making ends meet;
  • Almost 60% said they are cutting back on nonessentials to save money.”

 

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

Well-intentioned government programs created a false sense of security among aging Americans. Excessive spending on those programs at the same time created too much money chasing too few goods—inflation. Now the programs themselves are on the verge of bankruptcy and the people they convinced not to worry about saving, investing and insuring against risk are running scared. The situation is likely to get much worse before it gets better. The silver lining is that as the public programs falter, private savings, investment and insurance options will flourish.