Never More Important Than Now: Learn How To Retire

Yesterday marked the official release of LearnHowtoRetire.com and we don't think it happened a moment too soon.  Given the economic climate today, everyone, young and old, should be giving careful consideration to retirement planning.  See this article posted last week by the AP: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hWfCM1tcJYNZv4Sq4t1uALg__bmgD97I1GS82 Economy dampens hope of a comfortable retirement, by David Pitt. Since this constitutes our first official bog entry, an evaluation of this article seems like a good place to start. The subject of the article is a recent study performed by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute, which has provided some very sobering insights into the role many American workers are taking in their own retirement planning process.  Here are some of the key takeaways cited in the article:

• 13% of US workers say they will be able to live comfortably in retirement.
• 20% of retired people surveyed believe they will be financially secure, down 50% from 1 year ago.
• Less than half of the workers surveyed have tried to calculate how much retirement savings they will need.
  
• Only 7 percent say they have used an Internet calculator
• Less than one fifth say they have checked with an advisor
• 41% of workers that don't have defined benefit retirement plan at work believe they have one

These are only a few of the statistics provided by the study. I urge you to read the article to get the full import of it's contents.  To me it is very concerning all around, but specifically from these three angles:

1. While only 13% of workers polled believe they will be able to live comfortably in retirement, less than 20% of those polled have discussed the matter with an advisor.
2. Many people believe they have a defined benefit plan at work, when in fact they have a defined contribution plan, or worse, no plan at all.
3. Only 44 percent of workers say they have tried to calculate how much money they'll need to have saved for retirement. Another 44% is just guessing.
   

This underscores the fact that individual investors aren't taking the appropriate action to educate themselves on retirement planning or haven't contacted a financial advisor to begin the process of calculating how much they will need in retirement.

I wonder if data like this indirectly points to a kind of distrust individual investors have developed for financial counselors given the financial upheaval over the last year.

One thing is for sure: Individuals, most importantly those of retirement age or appraoching it, cannot simply keep their fingers crossed and hope for the best.