A new survey from Clever Real Estate has found nearly half of retirees (43%) have not saved for a comfortable retirement, with over one-quarter (27%) admitting they have no retirement savings at all and almost two in three (63%) believe the nation is in a retirement crisis.
The survey, which polled 1,000 retired Americans with a median age of 70 and a median retirement age of 62, also found over one in three retirees (39%) have seen their standard of living decrease in retirement, while nearly one in three (30%) said they’ve already spent too much of their retirement savings, and about half (45%) worried they will outlive their money.
The average retiree surveyed by Clever has just over $308,000 saved, barely half the recommended amount of around $605,000. More than one in four retirees (27%) say they have no retirement savings.
The majority of retirees (53%) said they prioritized preserving their finances over enjoying retirement, while just under half (46%) admitted they didn’t even start saving for retirement until they were 40 or older.
Nearly two-thirds of retirees (64%) said they were still carrying some debt beyond a mortgage, including one in three (31%) with more than $10,000 in debt. One-quarter of retirees (25%) said they spend over 30% of their income on housing costs, while 90% of the survey’s respondents believed retirement communities are overpriced and unaffordable for the average person. But 72% of retirees admitted they could not afford a home in today’s market.
Still, nearly half of retirees (44%) said their home is the only thing allowing them to have a comfortable retirement.
