Reports of Americans being unprepared for retirement have become so widespread that it no longer seems to elicit any emotional response.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 40.6 percent of all U.S. households (where the head of the household is between ages 35 and 64) are projected to run out of money in retirement. Moreover, the average Social Security benefit provides an income equivalent to the poverty level for a family of four.
Daunting numbers indeed, but these conditions speak to priorities undertaken years earlier. Many families would list education as their No. 1 goal, and given the exorbitant cost of college tuition, it only makes sense that their nest egg is less than robust.
This is an important distinction to make, that insufficient retirement savings could be more a function of conscious decisions made in the past than a failure to behave responsibly.
Full article at CNBC