Americans Fear Impact of Election, Inflation on Retirement
Americans are overwhelmingly optimistic about retirement, but most worry about how it will be affected by the coming election and by inflation, according to a new survey by the wealth management firm Wealth Enhancement Group.
Eight in 10 Americans are concerned about the impact of the election on their retirement plans, even though election outcomes historically “have had very little long-term impact on market performance,” Ayako Yoshioka, a portfolio consulting director at Wealth Enhancement, said in a statement accompanying the survey’s release.
Wealth Enhancement also found that 49% of Americans are worried about inflation and the cost of goods and services, 39% are concerned about how much they’ll pay in taxes, and 31% wonder whether they can count on Social Security or Medicare.
In addition, 19% of Americans think the election will determine when they’ll retire, and 55% of those who haven’t retired believe that inflation will push back their retirement — by nearly eight-and-a-half years on average — according to the survey, which was fielded in July and polled 1,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.
Yet 77% of respondents have “positive emotions around retirement,” which includes happiness, cited by 45%, and gratitude, cited by 37%, Wealth Enhancement says it found.
That’s despite 61% of respondents worrying they’ll run out of money during retirement and just 35% believing they’re on track to meeting their retirement goals, according to the survey.
Advisors may have a furtive field of prospects, meanwhile: Only 19% of respondents in the survey say they regularly meet with a financial professional about their retirement plan — and for those not yet retired, 18% have yet to set any retirement goals, Wealth Enhancement said it found.