Bleak Picture

Bleak Picture. The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) is an organization founded in 1978 with the mission of encouraging and contributing to the development of sound employee-benefit programs. Every year, the EBRI publishes a retirement confidence survey. The 2012 survey interviewed 1,003 workers and 259 retirees in order to find out their confidence in being able to meet retirement financial goals.

Unfortunately, the survey results look pretty bleak this year. For example, as the image illustrates, 30% of workers report having saved less than $1,000, and 18% report retirement savings in the $1,000–$9,999 range. Overall, more than half of workers have less than $25,000 saved, at a time when people start questioning if $1 million will be sufficient for a safe retirement. Take a minute and see if you recognize yourself in this picture.