Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
Some data on retirement savings

Some data on retirement savings

Last updated on: August 16, 2016 at 9:44 am by Jane the Actuary

Some data on retirement savings 2016-08-16T09:44:49-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

From ebri.org, that is, the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a table on actual savings, by workers and retirees, as reported in a 2014 survey. “Workers” included survey respondents ages 25 and up, and “retirees” included respondents of any age who said they were retired, so of course you’d expect younger respondents to have less savings, and older retirees to have spend down a lot of savings, but:

52% of workers have less than $10,000 in savings, and 60% have less than $25,000, and

46% of retirees have less than $10,000 in savings, and 58% have less than $25,000.

Here’s another table, from a supplementary fact sheet:

Which, again, indicates that very few workers nearing retirement age have sufficient savings to provide a comfortable income in retirement.

And, as a point of reference, here are the replacement rates from Social Security (assuming full earnings careers), at “normal retirement age”:

Very Low Income = $11,282 => 76% of pay

Low Income = $20,308 => 55% of pay

Medium Income = $45,128 => 41% of pay

High Income = $72,206 => 34%

Maximum Income = $108,570 => 27%

Appropos of nothing, but I was thinking about this, pulled up the data, and thought it’d be worth sharing.

Update:

Here’s some more data: a table from the census bureau on household income levels by age.

For the age group 55 – 65, the 1st quintile breakpoint falls at the $20 – 25K income level.

The 2nd quintile, at $45 – $50K.

The third, at $75 – 80K

The 4th at $120 – $125K.

OR, since we have the data point that 24% of this age group have saved less than $1,000, the income level that corresponds to 24% of this age group is $25 – 30K.

34% have saved less than $10,000; that corresponds to incomes of $35 – 39K.

41% have saved less than $25,000; and the 41st percentile income is $45 – $50K.

50% have saved less than $50,000; the 50th percentile = median is $60 – $65K.

58% have saved less than $100,000; the 58th percentile is $70 – $75K.

and 77% have saved up to $250,000; the 77th percentile is $115 – $120K.

So these are sucky savings rates when paired up with the corresponding income levels, if you assume that everyone saves in a consistent proportion to their income. Sure, this is household income compared to individuals asked about their savings, so conceivably some respondents could be splitting out “my” vs. “my spouses'” savings, and the younger people in this age group still have some time to save. And conceivably these survey-based results are faulty in the first place if people don’t think their 401(k) our IRA accounts should be included in the question, or that they are significantly more likely to underestimate than overestimate their savings.

And there’s your data for the day.

Actuarial/Retirement Issues

Previous Post

September 27, 2015

Update on Fiorina

Next Post

September 29, 2015 Don't defund Planned Parenthood - dismember them

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What message did Jeremiah send to the exiles in Babylon to encourage them?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Build houses and seek the city's good Pray for Judah only Return and revolt Fast and do not marry