AdvisorOne ran an interesting article recently, reporting the results of a retirement study done by Franklin Templeton. Investors are feeling a lot of stress about retirement, even early on. And given how things are going for many of them, feeling retirement stress is probably the appropriate response! In no particular order, here are some of the findings:
A new survey from Franklin Templeton finds that nearly three-quarters (73%) of Americans report thinking about retirement saving and investing to be a source of stress and anxiety.
In contrast to those making financial sacrifices to save, three in 10 American adults have not started saving for retirement. The survey notes it’s not just young adults who are lacking in savings; 68% of those aged 45 to 54 and half of those aged 55 to 64 have $100,000 or less in retirement savings.
…two-thirds (67%) of pre-retirees indicated they were willing to make financial sacrifices now in order to live better in retirement.
“The findings reveal that the pressures of saving for retirement are felt much earlier than you might expect. Some people begin feeling the weight of affording retirement as early as 30 years before they reach that phase of their life,” Michael Doshier, vice president of retirement marketing for Franklin Templeton Investments, said in a statement. “Very telling, those who have never worked with a financial advisor are more than three times as likely to indicate a significant degree of stress and anxiety about their retirement savings as those who currently work with an advisor.”
As advisors, we need to keep in mind that our clients are often very anxious over money issues or feel a lot of retirement stress. We often labor over the math in the retirement income plan and neglect to think about how the client is feeling about things—especially new clients or prospects. (Of course, they do feel much better when the math works!)
The silver lining, to me, was that most pre-retirees were willing to work to improve their retirement readiness—and that those already working with an advisor felt much less retirement stress. I don’t know if clients of advisors are better off for simply working with an advisor (other studies suggest they are), but perhaps even having a roadmap would relieve a great deal of stress. As in most things, the unknown makes us anxious. Working with a qualified advisor might make things seem much more manageable.
