The 2009 Retirement Confidence Survey : Economy Drives Confidence to Record Lows; Many Looking to Work Longer

This paper presents key findings from the 19th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), a survey that gauges the views and attitudes of working-age and retired Americans regarding retirement, their preparations for retirement, their confidence with regard to various aspects of retirement, and related issues. Workers who say they are very confident about having enough money for a comfortable retirement this year hit the lowest level in 2009 (13 percent) since the Retirement Confidence Survey started asking the question in 1993, continuing a two-year decline. Retirees also posted a new low in confidence about having a financially secure retirement, with only 20 percent now saying they are very confident (down from 41 percent in 2007). More workers are also planning to supplement their income in retirement by working for pay. The percentage of workers planning to work after they retire has increased to 72 percent in 2009 (up from 66 percent in 2007). This compares with 34 percent of retirees who report they actually worked for pay at some time during their retirement. Workers who say they are very confident in having enough money to take care of basic expenses in retirement dropped to 25 percent in 2009 (down from 40 percent in 2007), while only 13 percent feel very confident about having enough to pay for medical expenses (down from 20 percent in 2007). Among retirees, only a quarter (25 percent, down from 41 percent in 2007) feel very confident about covering their health expenses. Many workers still do not have a good idea of how much they need to save for retirement. Only 44 percent of workers report they and/or their spouse have tried to calculate how much money they will need to have saved by the time they retire - and an equal proportion (44 percent) simply guess at how much they will need for a comfortable retirement. The 2009 Retirement Confidence Survey was conducted in January 2009 through 20-minute telephone interviews with 1,257 individuals (1,001 workers and 256 retirees) age 25 and older in the United States. The RCS was co-sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization; and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., a Washington, DC-based market research firm