These days, most people are expected to self-fund their own retirement, but many people are falling short and facing dwindling funds in their golden years. A recent survey says the amount of money people should save to retire comfortably is $1.46 million, but the median retirement savings is just $87,000. Experts say there are surprising psychological and financial reasons many people aren’t preparing for the future. Here are a few:<\/p>\n
1. Financial planners say one of the biggest obstacles is that retirement simply doesn’t feel urgent. When people are focused on paying bills, raising children, or covering unexpected expenses, saving for a future that may be decades away often falls to the bottom of the priority list.<\/p>\n
2. A recent survey found that many workers are not contributing enough to retirement accounts, and some aren’t saving at all. The reasons vary, but inflation, rising housing costs, debt, and everyday expenses are making it difficult for many families to set money aside for the future.<\/p>\n
3. Another challenge is what experts call “present bias.” People naturally tend to focus on immediate needs and rewards rather than long-term goals.<\/p>\n
4. Many workers also feel overwhelmed by the process. Choosing investments, understanding retirement plans, and calculating how much money they’ll need can seem intimidating. As a result, some people avoid taking action altogether.<\/p>\n
5. Experts say take anything extra and save it. That includes tax refunds, bonuses, gifts, inheritance and side hustles. Financial professionals emphasize that it’s never too early, or too late to start. The key is simply getting started.<\/p>\n
The good news? Experts say even small steps can make a difference. Contributing enough to receive an employer match, increasing savings by just one percent each year, and setting up automatic contributions can help build retirement savings over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These days, most people are expected to self-fund their own retirement, but many people are falling short and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[81579,79,18,19,17,77928,234,235,53620],"class_list":["post-553828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life-lessons","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-sunrise"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116811969611501033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}