Retirement Insecurity for Older Americans

RETIREMENT INSECURITY FOR OLDER AMERICANS

The US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released a report on 2/28/24 exposing the depth of retirement insecurity for older citizens in the US. Some key findings of the report are: 

• Nearly half of Americans 55 or older have no retirement savings.

• 52% of Americans 65 and older are living on less than $30,000 annually.

• Nearly 5.3 million Americans 65 and older live in poverty, roughly one in ten seniors.

• The average monthly social security benefit in 2023 was only $1,782 or $21,384 annually.

Social Security was never meant to be the sole provision for retired workers. It was supposed to be supplemented by private pension systems and individual savings. An estimated half of the US workforce has no private pension plan at all. 

And a large part of the US workforce doesn’t earn enough to contribute sufficiently to any pension plan if offered, much less contribute to individual savings accounts.

Like so many aspects of US life today, you are on your own when it comes to retirement. 

Sources: Report of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, 2/28/24 and The New York Times, 5/24/24