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RESEARCH
Baby Boomers Give Glimpse Into Retirement Planning
In a classic case of “Do as I say, not as I do,” a new nationwide survey of pre-retirees offers younger generations a glimpse of what baby boomers might do differently if they could turn back the clock and start their retirement planning over.
According to the survey of 2,500 adults, ages 45 to 64, conducted by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, 71 percent of respondents wished they had started saving for retirement when they had their first full-time job, and a whopping 86 percent would advise younger generations to start saving as soon as possible. In addition, 61 percent would invest $1 million of unexpected income into retirement savings rather than start a business, buy a luxury home or go on a shopping spree.
Beyond saving earlier, pre-retirees advised:
- Don’t procrastinate—retirement will come sooner than you think (57 percent)
- Plan for the unexpected (57 percent)
- Seek help from a financial professional (32 percent)
The survey also found 24 percent of pre-retirees haven’t begun saving for retirement and 19 percent didn’t start until they were at least 45 years old; 59 percent have neither gone through a formal retirement planning process with a financial professional nor done serious calculations on their own; and 41 percent of respondents are worried about the effect of health care costs on their retirement savings.
Data for this survey were collected by the Harris Interactive Service Bureau (HISB) on behalf of Action Marketing Research. HISB was responsible for collection of the online data and demographic weighting only.
Action Marketing Research was responsible for the survey design and was solely responsible for data analysis. HISB collected data Sept. 26 to Oct. 7, 2006, among a nationwide cross-section of 2,500 U.S. adults ages 45 to 64, of whom 1,213 were men and 1,287 were women.
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