The Retirement Savings Crisis

Americans are dramatically behind where they should be when it comes to saving for retirement.

The most critical group is obviously the Babyboom generation. With 1/3 of Boomers having no retirement savings and less than 1/4 having balances over $300K. According to a Time Magazine survey, 35% of Babyboomers expect Social Security to be their primary source of retirement income. The average Social Security check is around $1350 or $16,200 per year, meaning those that did not save for retirement will either have to work in retirement or will be living below the poverty line.

We cannot force others to save. We can only take control of our own retirement. Time Magazine included a table for benchmark retirement account values by age:

If you are behind, it’s not too late to make significant changes to your spending and savings habits. Short-term sacrifices can have major long-term benefits.