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Paying for long-term care, declining health that requires long-term care, and outliving savings and investments are among the top retirement concerns of American workers, according to the results of a new survey.
Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which has conducted a national retirement attitudes survey of U.S. employers and workers since 1998, released the study, which focuses on the risks and realities negatively affecting workers’ retirement security.
Retirement fears
Respondents’ most frequently cited retirement fears include outliving their savings and investments (42%), declining health that requires long-term care (39%) and possible long-term care costs (34%). Three in 10 workers (32%) polled fear cognitive decline / dementia / Alzheimer’s disease.
Suburban respondents were somewhat more likely to cite declining health that requires long-term care (42%) as a retirement fear. Black workers (29%) were less likely to cite declining health that requires long-term care as a retirement fear, compared with white workers (39%), Hispanic workers (45%) and Asian American and Pacific Islander workers (46%).
Workers who were caregivers in the past were more likely to cite declining health requiring long-term care (44%) and cognitive decline (37%) as retirement fears.
Asian American and Pacific Islander workers (40%) were somewhat more likely than white workers (33%), and significantly more likely than Black and Hispanic workers (29%), to cite cognitive decline / dementia / Alzheimer’s disease as a retirement fear.
Financial priorities
Both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ workers similarly cited healthcare (24% and 22%, respectively) and long-term care expenses (9% and 10%, respectively) as current financial priorities.
Respondents caring for loved ones or friends listed paying long-term care expenses (18%) as a current financial priority, compared with 5% of non caregivers.
The survey, conducted in collaboration with the Transamerica Institute, was conducted by The Harris Poll between Nov. 17 and Dec. 29, 2020. The data represent a sample of 3,100 workers in for-profit companies and highlight key indicators of retirement readiness by employment status, work arrangement, urbanicity, LGBTQ+ status, race / ethnicity, caregiver status and household income.
