Saving for Retirement
Although one might expect that American workers would respond to their lack of retirement confidence by improving
their preparations, that does not appear to be the case. The percentage of workers who reported they and/or their
spouses had saved for retirement increased briefly in 2009 (to 75 percent), but this percentage has slowly declined and
now stands at 66 percent. The percentage of workers having saved for retirement increased from 1998 through 2000,
2%
‐3%
1%
‐2%
2%
‐4%
6%
‐4%
2% 4%
‐5% ‐2%
1% 2% 3%
‐5%
5%
‐1%
2%
‐1%
‐0.03
‐0.01
0.01
0.03
0.05
0.07
0.09
‐65%
‐60%
‐55%
‐50%
‐45%
‐40%
‐35%
‐30%
‐25%
‐20%
‐15%
‐10%
‐5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
55%
60%
65%
70%
75%
80%
85%
90%
95%
100%
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Very Somewhat Not Too Not At All Don't Know/Refused
Figure 12
Retiree Confidence in Having Enough Money to
Pay for Medical Expenses in Retirement
Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., 1993‐2013 Retirement Confidence Surveys.
12
15%
15%
43%
24%
9%
17%
39%
34%
Yearly
Change in
Not At All
10%
15%
32%
42%
14%
15%
38%
32%
Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., 2000‐2013 Retirement Confidence Surveys.
0%
‐2%
3% 0%
‐3%
‐8%
8%
4%
10%
‐11%
3%
0%
4%
‐3%
‐1%
1%
3%
5%
7%
9%
‐65%
‐60%
‐55%
‐50%
‐45%
‐40%
‐35%
‐30%
‐25%
‐20%
‐15%
‐10%
‐5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
55%
60%
65%
70%
75%
80%
85%
90%
95%
100%
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Very Somewhat Not Too Not At All Don't Know/Refused
Figure 13
Retiree Confidence in Having Enough Money to
Pay for Long‐term Care Expenses in Retirement
13
34%
19%
28%
16%
16%
25%
33%
22%
Yearly
Change in
Not At All
38%
17%
29%
15%
27%
18%
23%
30%
ebri.org Issue Brief • March 2012 • No. 384 15
declined significantly in 2001, and then hovered around 70 percent for most of the past decade (Figure 15). The
percentage of retirees and/or their spouses having saved for retirement climbed slowly from 59 percent in 2000 to
74 percent in 2011 and now stands at 71 percent (Figure 16).