Americans Saving More But Still Not Meeting Retirement Goals

Americans are saving more and investing more appropriately for their age. Nevertheless, more than half the households in the country still remain financially unprepared for retirement, said John Sweeney, executive vice president at Fidelity Investments. The number of people who are likely to afford at least their essential expenses in retirement jumped seven percentage points since 2013, from 38 percent to 45 percent, according to Fidelity’s biennial Retirement Savings Assessment study. Yet while that increase is positive, it still means that 55 percent are estimated to be at risk of being unprepared to completely cover essential living expenses in retirement, which includes housing, health care and food. On the savings front, Americans’ median savings rate improved from 7.3 percent to 8.5 percent with millennials showing the greatest improvement, increasing from 5.8 percent to 7.5 percent.