Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2013

[MichaelB]

A new report has been prepared by The Federal Reserve Bank and released last week. The title is “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2013”. It covers many topics that are very popular and frequently discussed here, such as retirement plans and preparedness, household savings, debt levels, and home ownership.

From the press release (here)

In its new Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households, the Federal Reserve Board provides a snapshot of the self-perceived financial and economic well-being of U.S. households and the issues they face, based on responses to the Board's 2013 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. The report provides insight into numerous topics of current relevance to household finances, including: housing and living arrangements; credit access and behavior; education and student loan debt; savings; retirement; and health expenses.

Overall, the survey found that as of September 2013 many households were faring well, but that sizable fractions of the population were at the same time displaying signs of financial stress. Over 60 percent of respondents reported that their families were either "doing okay" or "living comfortably" financially; although one-fourth said that they were "just getting by" financially and another 13 percent said they were struggling to do so. The effects of the recession also continued to be felt by many households, with 34 percent reporting that they were somewhat worse off or much worse off financially than they had been five years earlier in 2008 and 34 percent reporting that they were about the same.

Most of the topics in this report are frequently seen in financial media, but those studies are often carried out by companies with marketing agendas or services to sell. Not the case here. This is a “first edition”, so no data from previous years for trends or comparisons, but updates will be fascinating and surely frequent topics of discussion here. This is also an excellent baseline for folks to use for comparison with their own financial well-being.

Study here

 

[omni550]

Interesting to note, about half have not planned financially for retirement and only 18% of those 55 to 64 are planning to work until a set date and stop working altogether.

Here's the retirement excerpt from the executive summary:

 

[W2R]

From the link given by MichaelB,

Thirty-one percent of non-retired respondents reported having no retirement savings or pension, including 19 percent of those ages 55 to 64.

Actually that is quite encouraging! That means that 69% of non-retired responds DO have retirement savings or pension, including 81% of those ages 55 to 64.

Considering that so many people rely on pretty much nothing but Social Security in retirement*, I am greatly encouraged.



* "Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 22% of married couples and about 47% of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income." http://www.ssa.gov/news/press/basicfact.html

 

[bobafett]

From the link given by MichaelB,

Actually that is quite encouraging! That means that 69% of non-retired responds DO have retirement savings or pension, including 81% of those ages 55 to 64.

Considering that so many people rely on pretty much nothing but Social Security in retirement*, I am greatly encouraged.



* "Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 22% of married couples and about 47% of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income." http://www.ssa.gov/news/press/basicfact.html

It sounds encouraging but without hard figures of mean/median retirement rates we don't know if enough is being saved. Another issue is what sort of investments these funds are being directed towards as well.