Summary
Faced with inflation, taxes and concerns over the size of Social Security benefits, most Americans are more afraid of going broke in retirement than they are of death.
In total, 64% of respondents across generations said they are more stressed about running out of funds in their golden years than the prospect of death.
Americans say they need $1.26 million to finance a comfortable retirement, yet the median amount saved is $87,000. “Certainly for boomers…inflation is a big deal.”
I feel for them, truly. We American workers have been promised pensions that were taken because it was too expensive, Social Security that’s now being reduced or threatened with reduction to save money, and told to gamble our retirement in the stock market which is crashing to save money. The folks that were up for retirement this year have been screwed by Trump and his tariffs. The folks already retired are getting screwed by the cost of living. And everyone else years or decades away from retirement are looking at the gates of Oblivion.
I used to work in a factory a few years ago while trying to get a tech job (had to pay the bills) and I remember this old guy that worked there with me. He was in his mid 70s, was slow, and tired. Definitely couldn’t keep up with the fast pace environment that required 20, 30, 40yo people to do the job so he had the simplest most insignificant tasks to do. I asked him, one day, why he was still working when he should be at home retired. He said he needed the health care and if he had a medical emergency then there was always someone here that could save his life. That was pretty sad.