Where America's Retirement Income Comes From

[disneysteve]

From the AARP Bulletin. I thought this was interesting.

Data is from the Social Security Administration, 2014.

33% Social Security
32% Post-retirement work earnings
21% Pensions
10% Savings and investments
4% Other

It will be interesting to see how this breakdown changes in the future as pensions disappear and more people depend on their own savings to fund retirement (IRA, 401k, etc.). I know I certainly expect far more than 10% of my retirement income to come from savings.

[97guns]

So glad My retirement is funded 100% from the savings/investments category with no reliance on social security, post retirement work earnings or pension, feels good to be in full control

[AJ444]

Interesting numbers, I expect mine to look like this:

20% Social Security
0% Post-retirement work earnings
10% Pensions
70% Savings and investments
0% Other

[bjl584]

I don't have a pension, so take that one off my list.

I've been studying up on real estate lately, specifically multi-unit apartments. I've also been looking into self storage facilities. If I can add those to my portfolio, that is where most of my retirement income will probably end up coming from.

[phantom]

That is really interesting, but I'm having trouble pulling meaning from it as I imagine there are a lot of people relying solely on one thing or another skewing the numbers. I would like to see the numbers of people struggling through their "retirement years" separately from those living comfortably. (I'm assuming retirement is being defined by age rather than by not working since "Post-retirement work earnings" is an option.)

I think these numbers will describe my parents well in a couple of years. My mom is going to quit working and start getting a pension in less than a year. My dad will probably keep working (mostly because doesn't mind it). Sometime soon, they'll start drawing social security. So, if my dad keeps working after they start getting social security, they won't be too far off these numbers.

But, it's weird to see savings and other as such a low percentages when I think of those as the only sources of retirement income that I can fully count on. I think it's likely I'll get limited money from social security, and my husband just started working for a company that offers a pension for the first time ever. So, I expect those percentages to be more than zero, but not much.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

The only people I know retiring are my parents ages and all have pensions. But most of their kids my age do not. I think a lot of the us was covered by pensions prior but what will happen now? It'll be a sad sad day. I've seen how much people are saving for retirement.

[msomnipotent]

I have a $16,000 pension from before my employer offered a 403b. I only include it in my projections because it is lumped in with my 403b on the statements. My husband doesn't have any pensions and we don't count SS in our plans. I'm counting on our 401k, 403b, savings, and proceeds if we sell our house.

[Thrif-t]

Seems like all our friends are teachers and have pensions and are set to retire mid 50's with 30 years and then do something else they say.

My DH works for the govt and has a pension. He's 53 and could retire at 58 with 30 years but he'll have to keep working for the health benefits for us all, as they've changed his retirement health benefits to only cover him.

I worked for a company that gave a pension but only for 11 years so its quite small but I have a 401k from my current employment that is projected to meet our needs. DH also has a deferred comp plan that would meet our needs if anything happened to his pension.

The big monkey wrench in retirement is the dang medical benefits. I have every confidence that we could retire before 60 if it wasn't for health care expenses.

[Milly]

Is that 32% post retirement (age?) work earnings is a big problem? I imagine I'll want to do something productive after retiring too, but here's the frustration I see from millennials:

It is hard for college grads to get jobs because many older people did not prepare, got wiped out by 2008, want more stuff, or can't let go of work. Combine that with huge student debt (much of which is due to financial policies the government used to lessen 2008's effect?).

On the other hand, if there were productive jobs for both, that would just give America more productivity.