--- title: Less Than Half of Workers Are Confident They'll Have Enough Money for Retirement description: In a new survey from Principal, only 49% of workers said they were confident they had enough of a financial cushion to retire comfortably. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 500 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ published: '2022-03-25T17:58:18.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T17:22:32.000Z' section: Retirement tags: - News word_count: 599 canonical: https://money.com/not-enough-money-for-retirement/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Worried Man In Front Of Laptop With Large Portrait Of Benjamin Franklin Behind Him](https://img.money.com/2022/03/News-Not-Enough-Money-Retire-Comfortably.jpg) The vast majority of workers dream of one day retiring with enough money put away to live out their golden years in style. But for some, a comfortable retirement is just that — a dream. A [survey](https://landing.principal.com/retirement-transition/inside-your-clients-mind) released this week by financial services firm Principal paints a grim picture of U.S. employees' retirement outlook. Principal found that although 71% of workers said they had a top life goal of retiring comfortably, less than half (49%) were confident they’d have enough of a financial cushion to do so. The report, which included responses from about 2,000 Americans across generations, also quizzed nearly 250 retirement plan providers. They had an even harsher view of the situation: Just under 40% reported that workers in their plans were doing a good job [preparing for retirement](https://money.com/early-retirement-how-to-save/), and only 15% said they believed their participants would have enough money to live comfortably in retirement. While the lack of confidence may be new, the end goal isn't. “Time and again, Americans overwhelmingly say they want a comfortable retirement, and shifts in the past few years about how we work and think about work has not changed that,” Sri Reddy, a senior vice president at Principal, said in a [statement](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220323005194/en/Principal%C2%AE-Survey-Reveals-Retirement-Confidence-Gap-Across-Generations). What *is* changing is the attainability of a comfortable retirement. In decades past, the timing of a person's retirement was largely determined by their eligibility to collect Social Security, pension or other benefits — that is, [their age](https://money.com/this-is-the-age-when-most-people-claim-social-security-and-when-experts-say-you-really-should/). However, Principal’s research suggests that dynamic is starting to shift amid growing uncertainty from workers that Social Security will be able to support them in retirement, plus a decline in employer-sponsored retirement benefits. Instead of easing into retirement at 60-something and living off their pension and Social Security benefits, workers these days increasingly expect to continue working indefinitely. Some 80% of workers told Principal they planned to keep working throughout retirement. These expectations were due, in part, to the cost of health care in retirement as well as the [unpredictability of Social Security benefits](https://money.com/social-security-benefits-run-out-of-money/) and other retirement-related policies. And that's on top of concerns around not having enough money saved and, of course, [inflation](https://money.com/inflation-outlive-money-retirement/). Of those factors, health care costs and inflation could have a major compounding effect for retirees. A separate study recently released by HealthView Services found that [today’s record-setting inflation](https://money.com/inflation-worst-cities-gas-car-prices/) will result in [increased health care costs for the long haul](https://money.com/retirement-healthcare-costs-inflation-report/), posing further financial risks for retirees. For example, the additional lifetime costs due to health care inflation for a 45-year-old couple would amount to $259,808, the [study](https://hvsfinancial.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2021-Retirement-Healthcare-Costs-Data-Report.pdf) found. This emerging retirement crisis is becoming clear to workers and employers alike. Amid a historically tight labor market, wages have been getting a lot of attention, but workers are also scouring the landscape for [employers with good retirement plans](https://money.com/401k-most-important-financial-worker-benefit/). A recent survey from investment company Betterment found that 65% of workers said they would be tempted to leave their current job for a new one with better [401(k) benefits.](https://money.com/401k-and-401k-rollover/) Savvy employers know this and are [boosting their retirement benefits](https://money.com/401k-benefits-improve-great-resignation/) to attract workers. Whether that trend will meaningfully help workers reach their dream of a comfortable retirement, though, remains unclear. “Our research shows there is a lot of work to be done,” Principal's Reddy said. “It’s our job to demonstrate how the right tools, resources, and education can help people remain calm through bouts of market volatility.” ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/not-enough-money-for-retirement/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Retirement", "item": "https://money.com/retirement/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Retirement Planning", "item": "https://money.com/retirement-planning/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Less Than Half of Workers Are Confident They'll Have Enough Money for Retirement" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/not-enough-money-for-retirement/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/not-enough-money-for-retirement/", "name": "Less Than Half of Workers Are Confident They'll Have Enough Money for Retirement", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-03-25T17:58:18.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/not-enough-money-for-retirement/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/not-enough-money-for-retirement/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T17:22:32.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Less Than Half of Workers Are Confident They'll Have Enough Money for Retirement", "articleSection": "Retirement", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/03/News-Not-Enough-Money-Retire-Comfortably.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Not-Enough-Money-Retire-Comfortably" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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