The Gap Between the Retirement ‘haves’ & ‘have-nots’ Continues To Grow

…The gap between the retirement ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ has grown since the recession ended…and it is only going to continue growing unless people are provided with enough financial guidance so they can plan accordingly.

The growing gap

The Economic Policy Institute came out with some new data that highlights this growing gap in rather stark terms.  Take a look at this chart showing the retirement account savings for U.S. families:

The only tier that is better off since 2007 is the 90^th percentile.  The rest of the country is maintaining a flat rate of growth in retirement savings, if any…

When you look at this in context you realize that the retirement system is not working well for most workers. People are simply not putting away the necessary money in their 401K plans to secure a nest egg into later years.  That is problematic and we are seeing those issues now hitting older Americans as they try to live in their later years.  At that stage, there is only so much you can do to get your savings up given that your peak earning years are long gone.

To build up a nest egg you need to have the ability to save money.  The challenge is that many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and don’t have the ability to put money aside.

Editor’s Note:  The above excerpts from the original article have been edited ([ ]) and abridged (…) for the sake of clarity and brevity.  The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article.  Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor. Also note that this complete paragraph must be included in any re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.

Scroll to very bottom of page & add your comments on this article. We want to share what you have to say!