Affluent Americans may not be as ready for retirement as they believe, according a new survey from Charles Schwab & Co.
The survey finds that while most affluent Americans have a
“In many cases, we tell clients to assume they’ll need roughly the same annual income in retirement as they had beforehand unless they anticipate a significant lifestyle change, and to take into account longevity risk when planning how much money they might need,” says Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president of Charles Schwab.
Almost four in 10 affluent Americans (39%) say they do not plan to work at all in retirement and 46% say they might work part-time even though they expect to have enough money to live without working. One in 10 believed they will have to work at least part-time to make ends meet, according to the survey.
For roughly half of the respondents (52%), confidence in their retirement readiness was unchanged from last year. Almost as many feel more optimistic (23%) as they did less optimistic (24%) about their retirement readiness than a year ago.
Respondents did express some financial worries. More than half (53%) say their primary concern is incurring unexpected expenses in retirement, such as medical or health care costs.
The study polled 1,811 investors between the ages of
Margarida Correia is Associate Editor of