Forget sandy beaches, long cruises and plenty of time for the garden and the grandkids.
About half of Americans aren’t looking forward to retirement, at least in part because they fear they won’t have enough money, a new survey finds.
The survey, conducted in March on behalf of TD Ameritrade, found that only 52 percent of working adults agreed with the statement, “I am looking forward to retirement.”
The remaining 48 percent were either neutral or disagreed.
TD Ameritrade then asked the people who had disagreed with the statement why they weren’t looking forward to retirement.
The most common reason was that they didn’t have enough money saved, although a similar number of people said they were too young or retirement was too far away.
Other popular responses included that they like their work or feared being bored.
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, were most likely to be looking forward to retirement. Older workers born from 1930 to 1945 were most likely to feel negatively about retirement, perhaps because at their age it seems they might never retire.
The responses were from a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults.
The recession has had a varied effect on workers’ retirement plans. Some older people are working longer than they expected because they can no longer afford to retire. Others have been forced into early retirement because they lost a job and couldn’t find a new one.
The average age at which Americans expect to retire has been gradually creeping up. A recent Gallup poll found that it has risen to 67.