Ready for Retirement, Not Yet

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's annual Retirement Confidence Survey, the percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43% in 2010, from 39% in 2009. Confidence in the ability to save enough for a comfortable retirement hovered at 16% of respondents, the second lowest point in the 20-year history of the survey.

This is no surprise considering that we are still in the worst economic shape since the Great Depression. While Americans are lousy savers, lately those that with investments have lost a lot, not to mention the things that come up to drain your account like college for your grandkids or medical issues not fully covered by your health plan. In addition, many who bought property in the past few years have drained their accounts trying to keep their homes while the banks refuse to modify and values keep dropping.

Of those who have saved for retirement, 54% have less than $25,000. As the baby boomers hit retirement age, many of them will not retire. This lack of opportunity for younger generations as well as enormous health costs for the uninsured will be a major drain on Americas families far and above taxes and government deficits. But it could have been far worse. We dodged a bullet four years ago by preventing the privatization of Social Security by a republican congress and president. Imagine where we would be now if we let wall street take over Social Security.