In recent years, a large and growing number of baby boomers has reached retirement age, and a majority are choosing to stop working. But younger Americans these days seem to be less certain that this kind of option is even going to be available to them when they themselves reach retirement age. It’s a major concern, of course, but it’s also one that isn’t insurmountable.

Polls routinely show that people usually don’t have nearly enough money to stop working as they might like, but a big reason for that is many simply don’t have retirement savings accounts set up in the first place, according to recent data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That, in turn, is reflected in the number of people who say they have little or no confidence in their ability to retire comfortably.

The latest data showed that slightly more than 1 in 5 consumers are “very confident” they’re going to be able to retire comfortably, while more than 2 in 5 say they are “somewhat confident” in that ability, the report said. However, about 1 in 4 say that they are “not at all confident” they can do so. Experts say that’s a real problem.

A closer look
But again, a lot of that has to do with how people are able to prepare for retirement years in advance, the report said. Those who have retirement plans of some kind are about 2.6 times more likely to be very confident in their abilities to retire comfortably, and those without plans were more than three times more likely to feel completely without confidence about it.

Interestingly, though, even those who have retirement plans may know full well that they’re not doing enough to put themselves in positions for success, the report said. About 1 in 5 of these people say they understand they’re falling short these days but plan to increase their contributions to their retirements as time goes on. Another 15 percent say they plan to supplement their retirement income by working at least a little bit in their golden years, and nearly as many say they’re just going to push back when they retire altogether.

Getting granular
When it comes to workers who don’t have retirement savings, the total value of what they’ve put away for the future is less than $10,000 in more than 4 out of 5 cases, the report said. Meanwhile, more than 1 in 3 workers with these plans say they have at least $100,000 in the bank.

Clearly, this is an issue that needs addressing on an ongoing basis, but often one of the best ways for people to get up to speed with their retirement efforts is to simply educate themselves about the savings opportunities that may be available to them, whether they’re through an employer or not.

To learn more about wealth management and retirement savings, feel free to contact First United Bank & Trust online at mybank.com/contact, by phone at 1-888-692-2654 or by email at customerservice@mybank.com.