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Americans Will Work Longer, Save More

Written by NAPSI
Sunday, 27 March 2011 07:37

Yuma, Arizona (NAPSI) - An increasing number of Americans are taking action to improve their long-term financial outlook.

According to an international study, 57 percent of Americans expect to work past their normal retirement date - the highest percentage among people in any of the 10 countries surveyed.

More than residents of any other country represented in the study, Americans seem engaged in taking charge of their financial future through simple steps such as increasing retirement savings and reviewing retirement plans, in addition to expecting to work later in life.

“Americans know they need a better retirement safety net,” Aviva USA President and CEO Chris Littlefield said. “They are increasingly motivated to accumulate sufficient savings to provide a lifetime income stream to support them in retirement.”

Americans generally are not comfortable with their current financial position:

• Three out of five Americans who have not yet retired (62 percent) don’t think they will have enough money to have an adequate standard of living when they retire.

• Thirty-five percent of Americans plan to put more money into retirement savings in the next 12 months.

• The 57 percent of Americans who agreed with the statement “I think I am going to have to work beyond the normal retirement date to fund my retirement” was the highest percentage of agreement among all the countries surveyed and 10 percent higher than the composite response of 47 percent agreement. Only one in seven Americans (15 percent) disagreed with the statement—the lowest disagreement response rate among the 10 countries surveyed.

The survey—with a total sample size of 11,000 respondents—was conducted in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific markets by Aviva plc, the world’s sixth largest insurance group. In America, Aviva is a sales leader of indexed life insurance and indexed annuities.

“The best way to alleviate retirement concerns is to work with a professional financial and insurance adviser to help find solutions that guarantee lifetime income,” Littlefield said. “Americans need to become better educated about the amount of savings required to comfortably retire, as well as how they can protect their families financially in the event of the death of a wage earner.”


source...

So are the other 43% that were surveyed the ones charging everything including their morning coffee on their credit cards???

The best way to alleviate retirement concerns is to work with a professional financial and insurance adviser to help find solutions that guarantee lifetime income,” Littlefield said. “Americans need to become better educated about the amount of savings required to comfortably retire, as well as how they can protect their families financially in the event of the death of a wage earner.”
Did we not do that earlier and have a meltdown? Now we go back to the same instituitons and give them your financial earnings. gee the savings and loan disaster, wall street debacle, federal tax scams, better off betting on the peso, at least it is supported by sound economics, the Drug Cartel!!!!!!!

Those who are still working have what I consider to be "renewable" resources/income. Those who are retired & don't have any investments who live on retirement and/or Social Security or some other fixed source of retirement income....no longer have "renewable" resources. There aren't a whole lot of options for retirees who fall into the latter category, it's too late to have the same options of those who are still gainfully employed. Except for an ever-diminishing possibility of cost of living increases through SS, many are living on non-renewable resources in an ever more costly world.

I consider myself lucky with the timing of my decision of taking early retirement when I did & later pulling my rapidly dwindling investments funds out before the market took the serious nosedive several years ago; I'd already lost nearly 50% of my highest ever balance in investments in the preceding 5 years waiting for the market to recover. If I hadn't gotten out when I did, I couldn't have afforded to retire....ever!

My cost of living is less than half of what it was in the states & my quality of life is better. Unfortunately, most people would never believe they could actually live comfortably on less than half of what they did while they were working. I know my location plays a role in my cost of living....that & no mortgage payments, lower property taxes, etc.

Talk with a professional financial adviser....yeah right! Many of this generation don't have the liquid resources to gamble!

I really feel for our parents generation who are struggling trying to make ends meet!! My Mom's 93, never expected to live this long & has ongoing medical expenses to prove it! The fact that her fixed income is appreciably less than mine is scary!

"Plastic" has never been a lifestyle choice for me personally, I never charged more than I could pay off when the statement came....and charging food items which would be long gone come statement time always seemed like a very poor judgment call to me.

But on the other hand....what does my 876 credit score buy me now?

Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

But on the other hand....what does my 876 credit score buy me now?

Probably a lot of credit card offers....



It is a huge advantage owning a home down here with no mortgage. Annual property taxes are almost nothing and with the lower cost of living one really can live a good life on little. I know folks north of the border who have had to sell their (paid for) home just to get out from underneath the annual property taxes when reaching retirement age. I know a few others who wish they could if they could find a buyer...

I agree owning your home is a big advantage. But i know from experince once you remove the expense of going to work on a daily basics its a really big savings. My home being paid for plus the savings of not going too work I actuall have more disposable income than i did before I retired. combined with the fact I could care less about a credit score makes for a almost stress free life

"...work with a professional financial and insurance adviser..."

Why not? Let's hear some happy references from 2007; for Realtors we'd like the same in a 2005 vintage.

Who could have possibly known? Anybody without a nickel at stake who ever cracked a financial history book.

In late 2008 MANY people were still insisting nothing was amiss. Then a quick pivot into "Obama done it" for most of those; with the laughable implication that McCain would have been different somehow, and that another candidate(either party) will now rescue us.

Originally Posted by Noticias

...57 percent of Americans expect to work past their normal retirement date...

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

So are the other 43% that were surveyed the ones charging everything including their morning coffee on their credit cards???

No, we're the ones who downsized our expectations to realistic proportions, or never had the inflated ones to begin with. When it comes to the mythical "adequate standard of living in retirement", it's amazing how many people think they should be able to afford things that they couldn't afford while working: second homes, extensive travel, daily golf, cruises, fancy motor homes, and so on. A couple of well-meaning folks actually told me not to even consider retiring early unless I had $1 million. [Newsflash: if I'd had $1 million, I'd have retired at 30 instead of 60. ]

Others made comments like, "You realize, don't you, that you'll only have a limited amount to spend, and if you run out, you'll have to stop?" I wonder what they thought I'd been doing for the past 40+ years.

Originally Posted by Marty Cortez

Why not? Let's hear some happy references from 2007

I have one!! I retired in fall 2007 and used my investment company's free financial planning service. It was a phone interview, and the guy made recommendations, some of which I didn't like and argued about, because my current fund allocations were performing so GREAT, you see ... but when they sent the written plan, I grudgingly followed it. A month or so later, when I was converting from employer's plan to IRA, another of their reps advised me to withdraw a large hunk of after-tax funds. I hesitantly did that too, though convinced that I was gutting my account. As if on cue, the market crashed. Left to my own devices, I'd have lost tons more than I did, but their advice was spot on, and my retirement funds recovered very well.

Originally Posted by kate

I have one!! I retired in fall 2007 and used my investment company's free financial planning service...A month or so later, when I was converting from employer's plan to IRA, another of their reps advised me to withdraw a large hunk...on cue, the market crashed...

Can you say why he advised you to do so at that time?

It would be one thing having to do with your personal situation...

quite another if derived from market-at-large analysis. I've yet to hear an example of that.

Originally Posted by Marty Cortez

Why not? Let's hear some happy references....for Realtors we'd like the same in a 2005 vintage.

I'll take that one, but I'm also taking the liberty of changing "Realtors" to "Real Estate" & raising you 1 on the year....I put casa #2 on the market in 2006. I gave myself 6 months to try to find a buyer on my own before I'd list it with a Realtor. I accepted an offer less than 4 months after my website hit the internet....for a very respectable profit.

Granted, that profit disappeared into the black hole of casa #3....but that's a whole 'nuther story!

Heck Marty, if I knew that, I'd be smart enough to have made the same moves myself. It was probably both my situation and the state of the market-at-large, along with a dose of common sense. My portfolio with them was nearly all stocks, including growth and international, and I was on a roll. They knew it wasn't sustainable and advised me accordingly. Whatever, it's still a "happy reference from 2007", verdad?

Originally Posted by kate

...They knew it wasn't sustainable and advised me accordingly. Whatever, it's still a "happy reference from 2007", verdad?

I think so, and am almost heartened to hear that story.

Fidelity?

The company; that is.

I had been working in banking for about 13 years... and was very concerned on the appraisal process and the credit decisions which were being made by most ALL the lenders ...

It did not make sense, for loan officers to have never seen the property, less that adequate due diligence on the site and/or property along with the "borrower" not being truly qualified ... just a bunch of paper and numbers... thrown on the wall....

I made a decision, on one day.... to stop working ... I had been working from a hospital bed in my house running things for three years ... I was going to be 62 in about three weeks.. and I really thought the house of cards was not going to last... this was Nov of 2004

I first called and sold all of my "stock options"... and rolled my 401K into an IRA and put all into treasury's... after Allen Greenspan speech in Japan in Feb 2006 after leaving the FED.. when he brought up the fact of "re-indexing" on SFR ... and was told by Bernie to shut the f**k up.... he does not speak for the FED any longer... and everything is just fine... no R word, no D word... loss.. no way....

Watched shares drop from 78 to 75 in one day... and continued until a low of 16 per share was reached... the share prices are back up to 56 now..

But Treasury's have been much better... sold when yields dropped down to about zero.. than came back in, and then again ..... and if one does check ... over the last 100 years Treasury's have done overall just as well as stock.. with zero risk...

It was time for a reality check... like how the hell does one afford a $850,000 SFR on _____

When I read stories like this I get the impression that these are just early soft punches to soften us up for the harder blows waiting to come...

And soon

,

Vanguard.

Originally Posted by kate

Vanguard

That was a real classic...

Vanguard

That was an answer to Marty's question, not an invitation to hijack!
But since you did, that's a pretty cool looking car. When I was little, my dad had a beige Plymouth that sported the same lines.

Originally Posted by kate

That was an answer to Marty's question, not an invitation to hijack!
But since you did, that's a pretty cool looking car. When I was little, my dad had a beige Plymouth that sported the same lines.

Everyones Dad must have had a Beige Plymouth my Dad had a old 1939 then he bought a newer 1948 both were Beige

The true test to any good thread is a good hijack attempt...