Three-Quarters of Americans Worry About Having Enough Money to Retire

NEW YORK, July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- It's something that keeps many Americans up at night, tossing and turning, worrying about whether they have enough money to do a myriad of things – retire, meet unexpected costs, and so forth. Three-quarters of U.S. adults who are not retired yet (74%) say they worry about having enough money to retire and seven in ten of this group (69%) say planning for retirement is a key priority to them. One thing those not retired are not planning for is social security – just about one-third (35%) say they have faith in social security being there when they retire. This drops to one-quarter of Millennials (27%) and three in ten Gen Xers (30%).

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,286 adults surveyed online between May 14 and 19, 2014. (To see the full results including data tables click here)

Health care is another worry for Americans. Two-thirds (67%) say they worry about being able to afford unexpected health care costs. Among those who are not yet retired, seven in ten (70%) worry about being able to pay for their health care costs when they retire.

Saving… or rather, trying to save money
Almost seven in ten Americans (69%) say they are currently putting money toward any savings. One reason for those who aren't may be that almost half of unretired U.S. adults (46%) say they live paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to put money in savings. Among those saving, the top goals are rainy day funds for unexpected costs (65%) and retirement (52%). But, those saving are also doing so for some fun reasons as three in ten (31%) are saving for a vacation.

Not surprisingly, priorities change considerably by age; just two in five Millennials (39%) are saving for retirement, while over three in five Gen Xers and Baby Boomers (62%) say they are.  Millennials are also more likely then the three older generations to be saving money for a car purchase (24% vs. 11%, 10%, and 15%) and a home purchase (24% vs. 7%, 4%, and 3%).

A windfall comes their way, and…
It's something we all dream about – winning the lottery or having the distant relative you never knew about leave you money. But, if $100,000 came their way, what would Americans be mostly likely to do with it? Almost three in five (57%) would pay off an existing debt and/or loans while two in five (42%) would put money into a rainy day fund and save for unexpected expenses. One-third (33%) of Americans would invest toward their retirement while over one in five would go on vacation (23%) or buy a car (21%). Smaller numbers of U.S. adults would treat themselves to something they would not normally spend money on (16%), donate to charity (16%), buy a house (15%), pay for their kids' college (10%) and go back to school (6%).

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Methodology
This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between May 14 and 19, 2014 among 2,286 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, The Harris Poll avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Poll surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in our panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of The Harris Poll.

The Harris Poll^® #65, July 10, 2014
By Regina A. Corso, VP, Harris Poll and Public Relations Research

About Nielsen & The Harris Poll
On February 3, 2014, Nielsen acquired Harris Interactive and The Harris Poll.  Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

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SOURCE The Harris Poll