College faculty and staff are better prepared for retirement than the general population, according to a new TIAA-CREF survey.
Among other things, the survey found that higher-ed professionals are more likely to have savings in an IRA in addition to what they've put away in their employer-sponsored retirement plan. Forty-two percent of those higher-ed folks have done so, compared with only 34 percent of the general population.
In addition, TIAA-CREF also found that tenured and tenure-track faculty feel more confident about having enough money to get comfortably through retirement, with 83 percent saying they feel "very confident" or "somewhat confident" that they'll be able to do so. Only 55 percent of the general working population feels that way.
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One major contributing factor to this level of preparedness is a matching incentive for retirement plan contributions. Almost three-quarters of the higher-ed folks say that their employers provide a match —and, among those who get a match, 43 percent get more than the general working population — a 5-8 percent match. Only 34 percent of workers in general say they get that much.
Still, despite their financial readiness, higher-ed professionals are in no hurry to leave the halls of academia behind — or, at least, to stop working. Sixty-four percent say they're going to wait until 65 or later to retire, and it doesn't seem to be related to the economic downturn. Ten years ago, 63 percent said the same thing.
And even when they retire, it doesn't mean they're going to be spending their days in a hammock sipping piña coladas. They're more likely, at 37 percent, to say they'll keep working part-time, than the general population at 31 percent. No salary? No problem; 37 percent say they'll do volunteer work, compared with only 21 percent of the overall worker population.
At least they won't be spending so much time marking papers.
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