In this month’s least surprising research results, a new retirement readiness survey released by Ameriprise Financial finds that Americans are feeling less sanguine about what retirement is going to look like. The New Retirement Mindscape 2011 City Pulse index (which incidentally is also this month’s most excitingly titled study) looks at “national and local retirement trends over time” (as opposed to trends that do not take place over time).
And the trends are downbeat: “A mere 18 percent of consumers surveyed across the U.S. say they believe they’ll achieve their dreams in retirement.” That’s down from 21 percent in 2010. Of the 82 percent who don’t think all their retirement dreams will come true, about a quarter are worried, a lot are anxious and 10 percent are “depressed” about the prospect. (Given what we know about how much the average Boomer has set aside for retirement, 10 percent sounds like a low number, especially since we found out today that it’s not necessarily enough to have a cool million tucked away. And only five percent of us have that, anyway.)
So how are retirees planning to spend all those empty hours, given that they can’t afford anything? According to the New Retirement Mindscape 2011 City Pulse index, they plan to be hanging around the house doing not much of anything: “With rising healthcare costs and the continuing national debate around the topic, it is surprising that the number of Americans who are making plans to ensure they remain healthy has declined (51 percent vs. 55 percent). The number who report planning to spend more time with family (37 percent vs. 41 percent), travel (23 percent vs. 26 percent), decide which hobbies to pursue (19 percent vs. 21 percent), volunteer (13 percent vs. 15 percent) and continue their education (10 percent vs. 13 percent) has also dropped significantly.”
Basically, Americans plan to do less with less. This means they’ll be doing pretty much the same as their stoner Gen X kids who are still living in the basement, which says “family bonding” to us, even though folks say they plan to spend less time with family. Confusing. Apparently doing anything takes money? Or more money than we expect to have?
On a related note: how many people expected, truly expected, to achieve their career dreams…or their teen-age dreams…or any of the other age-appropriate dreams of their lives? The fact that you’re dreaming about it seems to suggest that it’s lying on the rocky plateau between what you think is plausible and that fantasy of what you really, really hope might happen. So the salient question might not be “Do you expect to achieve the retirement of your dreams?” It might be “Do you think you’ll be happy and fulfilled in retirement?”
Yes, pretty sure that’s the question. It’s also probably down from five years ago, but it’s the question we care to see answered.
Frido watching TV, by Maufdi, via Flickr Creative Commons
