38 Million Households have NO Retirement savings..Are you one of them?

A new report paints a rather grim assessment of how prepared we are for retirement. "The Retirement Savings Crisis: Is it Worse Than We Think?" from the Washington, D.C.-based National Institute on Retirement Security, says the typical American family has only "a few thousand dollars" saved for retirement. 

"We have millions of Americans who have nothing saved for retirement," says Diane Oakley, executive director of the NIRS. "We have 38 million working-age households who do not have any retirement assets."

For people 10 years away from retirement, the median savings is $12,000. "Of the people between 55 and 64, one third haven't saved anything for retirement," Oakley says. 

That's not news to retirement planners, most of whom have clients with considerably more assets than the average American. But believe it or not, it's often news to the people who come for their advice. One of the most uncomfortable conversations planners say they have with clients is the one in which planners tell clients they're not financially ready to retire because they haven't saved enough money.

"Those are some of the hardest conversations we have to have," says Bill Allen, vice president at Schwab Private Client Investment Advisory. "People realize very quickly that how they are living today may not be the way they are set up to live in retirement." 

Susan Fulton, president and founder of FBB Capital Partners in Bethesda, Md, says, "Ninety percent of Americans will not be able to retire on savings and Social Security." The amount of money saved for retirement by the average American is "appalling, terrifying," she says.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

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