Yesterday, a personal finance website released survey numbers that said saving for retirement happens at an incredibly low levels in the United States. Here are the numbers:
14% of people ages 65 and older have no retirement savings; 26% of those 50 to 64; 33%, 30 to 49; and 69%,18 to 29, according to the survey of 1,003 adults.
Fortunately, our collective American life expectancy is longer than that of a person living during the Middle Ages. Back then you'd be lucky to live past 30. There was no need to plan for your elder years because if you made it to 34, you would be considered old as hell. But thanks to technology and innovations in medicine over the past few centuries we can live healthy lives well past 70 or 80. This is why saving for retirement or partial retirement is so important. We can work a job from 20 to 58 and manage our bills, expenses and responsibilities as well as the general grind working can be. But old age brings creaky bones, slow movements and a body that might not be able to withstand a 40 hour work week. It's why our much older, much more wrinkled versions of ourselves would probably ask that we set aside some money for when we're old and gray. You can watch and read the entire story by Hadley Malcolm on USA Today.