From Casey's Daily Dispatch:
According to a recent Retirement Fitness Survey, baby boomers are in "a state of denial" when it comes to their retirement savings. According to the survey, the financial positions and savings habits of 50- to 59-year-old pre-retirees "are insufficient to last for their expected 20-plus years of retirement." Specifically, while it is said that $800,000 is needed to retire – the average person at that age, at his or her current pace, will only be able to come up with $300,000.
Interestingly, according to one of the individuals involved in the study…
"In the wake of the severe economic crisis, we had expected to find people had become more conservative in their savings and spending behavior. We were surprised to see how few people have increased their rate of savings and how many people in their 50s have no retirement plan at all. For people in the last 10 to 15 years of their working career, the failure to have a thorough retirement plan in place is like driving while blindfolded."
I find this interesting from a couple of angles. The first is that despite the crisis and the clear hardship stalking the land, old habits die slowly. And today's old habits include spending more than one takes in, hoping things will have improved by the time the easily ignored creditors calls turn into not-so-easy-to-ignore loud bangs on the front door.
The other angle that pops to mind goes back some years to Seville, Spain, where I met an old retired Navy man who, no longer able to live like a human on his pension, had moved to Spain and was living like minor nobility. This trend toward moving to where the living is not only easy but very, very cheap is a trend I expect we'll see gain momentum.
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