Americans are growing more anxious about not having enough money to live comfortably after they retire, and that anxiety is translating to poorer physical health.<\/p>\n
Only about 6 in 10 American workers are confident that they can retire with enough money to keep up with inflation and the cost of living in retirement, down from 67% last year. It\u2019s the most insecure they\u2019ve felt since 2017, according to a new retirement confidence survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n For retirees, the concern is also inching up.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most interesting finding from this year\u2019s report is that there\u2019s a correlation with how people are feeling about both their finances and their physical health,\u201d said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), which published the findings. \u201cNot only are Americans rating their financial well-being lower, but also their physical health.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years ago, more than 60% of people said their physical health was good. Now only 45% do.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pressures of increased debt, raising housing prices, and prices in general are creating increased uneasiness about the future,\u201d Copeland said.<\/p>\n Debt is a \u2018major\u2019 problem<\/strong><\/p>\n Debt is a problem for nearly two-thirds of workers and a major problem for a quarter.<\/p>\n Half of workers have credit card debt, and nearly 4 in 10 have more than $25,000 in non-mortgage debt. Two in 5 retirees report debt as a problem, but it\u2019s not as pressing \u2014 more than half have less than $1,000 in non-mortgage debt.<\/p>\n Meantime, many retirees say they retired earlier than planned. Most stepped out of the workplace before they turned 65, and most often the reason was out of their control, from a health issue to a job loss.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a gap between how workers think they will stop working and the way it actually works out. While almost half of workers think they\u2019ll make a gradual transition <\/a>to retirement, for 3 in 4 retirees, it was a hard stop.<\/p>\n Retirees \u2018spending money how they want\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Not all is grim. A majority of retirees say their standard of living is at least good, with half reporting that it\u2019s excellent or very good.<\/p>\n Three in 4 say they\u2019re able to spend money how they want within reason. \u201cThey\u2019re enjoying it,\u201d Copeland said.<\/p>\n But for many, expenses in retirement are steeper than expected.<\/p>\n There is \u201ca striking difference by income,\u201d Copeland said. Among those with annual incomes less than $35,000, more than half rate their lifestyle as fair or poor, compared with only 10% among those with incomes of $75,000 or more.<\/p>\n Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 books, including “Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future,<\/a>” “In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work<\/a>,” and “Never Too Old to Get Rich.” Follow her on Bluesky<\/a> and X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Click here for the latest personal finance news to help you with investing, paying off debt, buying a home, retirement, and more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo <\/strong><\/a>Finance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Americans are growing more anxious about not having enough money to live comfortably after they retire, and that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":747301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[26273,9331,64,307622,79,118026,71776,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-747300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-american-workers","tag-americans","tag-business","tag-craig-copeland","tag-economy","tag-employee-benefit-research-institute","tag-physical-health","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116453238825926542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}