How People are Retiring

In a survey of people 65 to 69: retirement-sign

  • Only the top 10 percent of all households has more in actual financial assets than they have in virtual Social Security wealth.
  • Even at the seventh decile, Social Security wealth is twice as great as financial assets. This means that Social Security provides more income than financial assets provide for a very large majority of Americans.
  • Pensions mean little to most households because most people don’t have them. Pension wealth registers at zero for the bottom 70 percent of all single-person households. It’s at zero for 60 percent for all married households.

Scott Burns in the DMN. Study by James M. Poterba et al.

15 thoughts on “How People are Retiring”

  1. Millions of people are relying on Social Security for the majority of their retirement funds…

    Yet we leave social security in the “general fund” for the feds to draw from? Risky.

  2. That’s pretty wild to see that so many are relying on a program that’s basically one big Ponzi scheme.

  3. “Only the top 10 percent of all households has more in actual financial assets than they have in virtual Social Security wealth.”

    Personal responsibility is not what it used to be.

    1. It’s never been this bad. On the grand scheme of things, imagine personal responsibility 1000 years ago…

  4. Too bad Social Security wasn’t designed to force people to save for their own retirement. Rather, Social Security is squandered by the government and people are still expected to save (or their employers forced to save) over and above their 15.3%. By any measure, 15.3% of income should be enough retirement savings for most workers who toil for 40 years.

  5. My neighbor sold his house after he retired and moved to a prefab retirement community next door.

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