Personal Finance

42% of Americans are at risk of retiring broke

Key Points
  • Nearly half of Americans have less than $10,000 stashed away for retirement, according to a report by GoBankingRates.
  • For them, a serious lack of planning coupled with a longer life expectancy has destroyed any retirement dreams.
Cities where your retirement savings will stretch the furthest
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Cities where your retirement savings will stretch the furthest

At this rate, retirement is more of a fantasy than a reality for many people in this country.

About 42 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for when they retire, according to a study by GoBankingRates.

The No. 1 reason most people cited for not stashing more away was because they didn't earn enough to save, followed by the fact that they were already struggling to pay bills, GoBankingRates said. The personal finance site polled more than 1,000 adults online in February.

For those with little or no savings, a serious lack of proper investment income and planning, coupled with a longer life expectancy, has destroyed any retirement expectations.

Although millennials are most likely to have less than $10,000 saved, older Americans are also becoming steadily more pessimistic about their future economic prospects, according to a separate study by United Income, a start-up that aims to apply big-data analysis to financial planning.

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