Employees know the age of the pension is over. But while they've managed to assume the mindset of being responsible for their own retirements, that doesn't mean they think they can.
According to the 2015 Employee Financial Wellness Survey from PwC, more than 70 percent of employees now say they should be primarily responsible for funding their retirement. Just 17 percent say their employers should do so, and only 13 percent say the government should.
But they don't think they're equal to the challenge. Thirty-five percent say they're going to have to use money they'd intended to fund their retirement for nonretirement purposes, and that number is up from the past two years' responses of 27 percent. And only 43 percent believe they'll be able to retire when they want to, with 54 percent of all employees saying they'd consider a reduced schedule to keep working in retirement if their employers would offer it.
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Boomers, perhaps not surprisingly, are the most worried about retirement, with 53 percent saying they're afraid they won't be able to retire when they want to. Thirty-five percent are afraid they'll run out of money in retirement, while even more—41 percent—are afraid of the cost of health care in retirement.
Only 55 percent of boomers say they know how much money they'll need in retirement, and 51 percent say they have to postpone retiring because they haven't saved enough money. Nineteen percent say they can't retire because they need to keep their healthcare coverage, while 18 percent say they have too much debt; 18 percent say their retirement assets have fallen in value, and 13 percent say they can't leave work because they're still supporting children and/or grandchildren.
How could things get better, so that boomers could meet their financial goals? Twenty-seven percent cited a rising stock market, and 22 percent lower health care costs, as the factors that would most help them.
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