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Data & Research June 10, 2014
Half of Boomers Do Not Know Retirement Need
More than half of Baby Boomers polled expressed uncertainty about how much money they will need in retirement.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
According to the Wells Fargo Millennial Survey, 54% say they “can’t estimate” how much they will need in retirement. Twelve percent say they will need $500,000 to $1 million, and another 12% say $1 million to $2 million.
The survey also found more than half of Boomers (56%) favor a mandatory retirement savings policy. Only two-thirds (66%) say the stock market is the best place to invest for retirement, representing a roughly 10 percentage point increase from last year’s study.
Boomers are also feeling vulnerability in their careers; 58% of Baby Boomers said if they lost their job they could find a comparable one within a year. This is in sharp contrast to 78% of Millennials who said the same (see “Millennials Learned Lesson About Saving”).
When asked whom they trust for financial advice, Boomers cited “personal finance experts/personalities” as their first choice (57%), followed by “financial institutions” (45%) and “family” (40%). Asked what advice they would give to those starting out in their careers, 43% would tell them to start saving for retirement now.
The 2014 Wells Fargo Millennial study was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of the Wells Fargo Wealth, Brokerage, and Retirement (WBR) team between April 15 and May 2. Survey respondents included 1,639 millennials between the ages of 22 and 33, as well as 1,529 baby boomers between the ages of 49 and 59.