The Norman Transcript

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March 21, 2013

Confidence doesn’t swell with market

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — If there’s one good thing to come out of the most recent recession, it’s that workers have figured out they need to increase their levels of retirement savings.

That’s not to say that they are actually putting more money away for future use. A new report suggests workers are nusy meeting short-term financial needs and are not really thinking about long-term retirement plans.

They have little faith in the economic recovery and the stock market’s most recent gains, according to a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The group has conducted similar studies over the past 23 years. Nearly half of all workers surveyed this year had little or no confidence that they’ll have a financially secure retirement. Twenty-eight percent were not at all confident, the highest level recorded since the survey began in 1991.

The Associated Press reports retirement confidence numbers were substantially higher before the economy tanked. Seventy percent of the workers surveyed in 2007 were either somewhat confident or very confident of their future.

Fewer than half of all workers appear to be taking basic steps needed to prepare for retirement. Most of us have not even estimated how much they’ll need to save to live comfortably in retirement.

More than half of the workers surveyed reported having a problem with debt levels. Thirty-nine percent of the retirees surveyed reported the same thing.

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