Workers who are unsure of where they stand in retirement preparedness might be more reassured if they have taken a couple of basic steps with regard to retirement planning: figuring out how much money they need and figuring out how to make their retirement savings generate income once they leave the workplace.

That’s according to a recent DC Pulse Survey by New York City-based investment management company BlackRock, which found that 28 percent of defined contribution plan participants responded that they feel “unsure” about whether they’re on track for retirement.

But those “unsure” folks are much more likely than those “on track” to admit that “I don’t know as much as I should about investing for my retirement” (66 percent, compared with 38 percent) and “I don’t know how much money I need to save in order to fund the retirement I want” (68 percent, compared with 32 percent).

“Unsure” participants’ responses also indicated that they’re less likely to be taking proactive steps to improve their knowledge. Only 11 percent of them, for instance, have even calculated how much money they need to save for retirement, while 35 percent of the “on track” crowd has. In addition, just 25 percent of the “unsures” have gotten a good sense of how to generate ongoing retirement income from their savings, compared with 68 percent of the “on tracks.”

Women, sadly, fall more among the “unsures” than the “on tracks” — 66 percent of “unsures” who said they weren’t sure whether they’d be able to retire the way they want to were women. In addition, 33 percent of women said they were “unsure” about their retirement than said they felt “off track” (21 percent).

But women also say they could improve the situation; “unsure” women were more likely than “unsure” men to say that they don’t spend the time they should to understand their employer’s retirement plan (55 percent, compared with 41 percent) and don’t feel that they are doing as much as they should with their plan (57 percent, compared with 42 percent).

And women were significantly more likely than men (74 percent, compared with 66 percent) to say that their plan will be extremely or very important to ensuring a secure retirement. In fact, 58 percent of women said it would be their biggest source of retirement income, compared with 51 percent of men.

Instant Insights /

BlackRock: 'Unsure' workers need to improve retirement plan knowledge

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