Americans face a host of retirement challenges. The transition to defined contribution (DC) plans hands more responsibility to workers to provide for themselves in retirement. Fiscal pressures on Social Security and Medicare place the future of those systems in doubt. Rising health care costs add further uncertainty. And slow growth in real household income and rising costs of day-to-day living make saving more difficult for many households.
These concerns emerge starkly in a 2015 survey by the National Institute on Retirement Security. This biennial poll found some 86 percent agreeing that the nation faces a retirement crisis. Respondents rank retirement benefits as almost as important a feature of their jobs as salary (72 percent versus 75 percent). Concerned they will not have enough assets.