With more than 80% of America’s non-farm workers laboring under [3] non-existent wage growth, and with central bank policies serving not only to exacerbate the gap between the wealthy and everyone else while wiping out [4] what’s left of the Middle Class in the process, but also creating conditions whereby pension funds are unable to meet [5] their obligations without assuming inordinate amounts of risk, the idea of a comfortable retirement could become more elusive than ever in the new paranormal. Exacerbating the problem are rock bottom yields on traditional savings vehicles and risk-free assets, and the simple fact that generally speaking, people just aren’t saving enough in a world driven by rampant consumerism. Here’s NY Times [6] on the latter issue:
On average, a typical working family in the anteroom of retirement — headed by somebody 55 to 64 years old — has only about $104,000 in retirement savings, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
That’s not nearly enough. And the situation will only grow worse.
The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College estimates that more than half of all American households will not have enough retirement income to maintain the living standards they were accustomed to before retirement, even if the members of the household work until 65, two years longer than the average retirement age today.
Using a different, more complex model, the Employee Benefit Research Institute calculates that 83 percent of baby boomers and Generation Xers in the bottom fourth of the income distribution will eventually run short of money. Higher up on the income scale, people also face challenges: More than a quarter of those with incomes between the middle of the income distribution and the 75th percentile will probably run short.
Fortunately, some forward-thinking members of the world’s workforce have devised a clever workaround (no pun intended): they’ll just rely on funds they imagine they’ll receive when family members die. According to a new study commissioned by HSBC (which has in the past developed its own innovative take on the ‘tax advantaged [7]’ retirement savings plan), one in three working age people are banking on an inheritance to partially or fully fund their retirement. Here’s more:
Many working age people are banking on receiving an inheritance. Almost two thirds (66%) of those who have received or expect to receive an inheritance believe that it will help to fund their retirement, while more than a quarter (27%) expect it will completely or largely fund it.
Unfortunately, these expectations don’t match up particularly well with reality:
Less than a third (32%) of working age people have received an inheritance. While this is more understandable among younger working age people, the proportion of older people who have received an inheritance is also lower - just over a third (36%) of working age people aged 45-64 have received an inheritance, while for those aged 65+, the proportion is still less than half (48%).
And the gap between perception and reality may be growing because ironically, nearly a quarter of those surveyed — and this is the same pool of respondents wherein 66% are betting on an inheritance to retire — indicated that they believe “it is better to spend all your money and let the next generation create their own wealth.” In other words: “I expect the previous generation to fund my retirement, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for my kids to quit working.”
[8]
[9]
HSBC draws the following conclusion regarding working age people’s assumptions about inheritances:
To avoid disappointment in later life, working age people need to consider what happens if an inheritance is lower than expected - or doesn’t come at all.
And if the survey results presented above are any indication, that conclusion goes double for the children of those who participated in the study.
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