The impact of the market downturn and the recession on Americans’ expectations for retirement is dire, as evidenced by the 2009 Annual Retirement Confidence Survey, the 19th fielded by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute. The number of workers feeling very confident about retirement dropped 50% since 2007.
The factors leading to this severe drop in confidence won’t surprise you: economic uncertainty, inflation, the cost of living, job loss and loss of retirement savings. In addition, workers and retirees alike are concerned about medical expenses, with only 13% of working Americans and 25% of retirees feeling very confident about meeting medical costs.
