The number of retirees who say they are worried about financial security has more than doubled in the past year, and many are tightening budgets or seeking professional financial advice. Forty-nine percent of retirees said they felt less secure than when they first entered retirement, compared with 20% who said so last year.
The findings come from a survey of retirees aged 56 to 77 with $100,000 or more in investable household assets.
The survey also found a significant decline in the number of retirees who feel very confident they have saved enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement. Today, only one in four of the retirees are extremely confident they have saved enough, a 12 percentage-point drop year over year.
Over four in ten said their tolerance for investment risk has gone down since last year, and many were concerned about the possibility of inflation (45%), not having enough time to recover from the downturn (39%), concern about the economy (79%) and change in house value (28%).
But the real kicker comes from page 10 of the Report, a stunning observation that 34% of retirees from the 2009 survey had not estimated how long their assets and investments might last in retirement and fully 11% had never thought about it!
My goodness! People, what are we thinking here? At least the Report showed that retirees had increased their willingness to involve a financial planner in their decision-making, growing from 56% in 2008 to 61% today. Another data point showing that when it comes to our finances we may be our own worst enemies.
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