Center for American Progress

The Next Recession Will Show The Stark Reality Of The Retirement Crisis
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The Next Recession Will Show The Stark Reality Of The Retirement Crisis

Christian E. Weller explains how, despite recent favorable trends, the next recession will reveal the severity of the retirement crisis.

The country faces a growing retirement crisis. An ever larger share of the fastest growing part of the population will struggle to make ends meet in retirement. Estimates show that many have not saved enough to offset declining Social Security benefits and rising costs due to greater longevity and health care inflation, just for starters.

As a result, we should see retirees increasingly face financial struggles. This hasn’t happened yet because a number of favorable trends in recent years have helped older households to offset insufficient savings. Many older workers have been able to find paid work and stayed on the job for longer than would have been possible just a few years ago. More jobs mean later retirement and higher incomes. And the stock market gains of the past several years have boosted balances in 401(k)s and IRAs.

The above excerpt was originally published in Forbes. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Christian E. Weller

Senior Fellow

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