Peak Boomer? US Faces Growing Crisis as Older Americans Lack Savings to Retire

The group notes that “peak boomers” are approaching retirement – the portion of the “baby boomer” generational cohort born between 1959 and 1964. These Americans are thought to represent the largest group of baby boomers to reach retirement age. But it appears they are also the poorest.

The group’s survey found that 37% of Americans 50 and older fear they won’t be able to afford basic expenses like food and housing, and 70% worry about the impact of rising prices outstripping their income. Inflation has remained stubbornly high under US President Joe Biden, with recent data undermining efforts by the Federal Reserve to implement planned interest rate cuts this year.

More than half of respondents surveyed do not believe they have enough money saved to get them throughout retirement.

Shockingly, one-fifth of people surveyed over 50 have no retirement savings at all, raising the prospect of millions of Americans working until they drop or being forced to rely on family members to survive.

The findings come as observers say the US is in the midst of a major retirement crisis. Previous generations of Americans relied on dependable workplace pensions to fund retirement, enjoying a guaranteed nest egg as a benefit of employment. But such benefits have become rare with stock market-based investment plans beginning to become more common during the 1980s.

Such plans submit Americans’ savings to the whim of the market’s rise and fall, and also depend on consumers having disposable income to invest. Many of them do not as they struggle to afford basic living expenses.

Additionally, Social Security, a US government-based retirement insurance program, has failed to keep up with the cost of living amid neglect from Congress, with many Americans finding it insufficient to cover the costs of retirement.