People aren't feeling good about where they are financially.
Obligations weigh them down—daily living expenses, the high cost of health care, the potential for job loss or some other catastrophe—and they don't even have a secure retirement to look forward to, now that pensions are largely a thing of the past.
So say some of the findings from a survey done by LifeCare, a provider of work/life services, and the Financial Planning Association.
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The two organizations teamed up to survey workers in June and July and asked them a series of questions about short- and long-term financial matters.
The answers were very revealing.
According to the report, while American workers "seem to be confident in their short-term financial needs," that's not the case at all for longer-term issues—retirement among them. Respondents were "clearly stressed about their retirement and the planning required," but also don't seem to understand "what retirement planning is…"
One of the biggest obstacles, however, is dealing with everyday expenses.
Among respondents who said they weren't saving for retirement, 67 percent said they just didn't have anything left to save after they'd paid for such essentials as "housing, transportation, food and household items, education, credit and debt repayment, and eldercare." These folks were mostly among those who said their household income was under $100,000 per year.
In fact, the areas of saving and spending both qualified as areas that provide them with the most confidence but also the most stress; 25 percent fell on the confidence side, while 26 percent said they were stressful.
Forty percent of respondents said they feel they're ill prepared for retirement, because they haven't saved enough.
Of course, only 7 percent indicated that they felt confident about retirement planning, and 55 percent said they didn't have a plan in place for retirement or didn't know if they did.
When you consider that 60 percent of survey respondents were between the ages of 45 and 64—"prime retirement planning years for most people"—that's not a good sign.
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