Center for American Progress

Why are so many Americans struggling to save for retirement?
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Why are so many Americans struggling to save for retirement?

Christian Weller writes that the retirement crisis in the United States is real and getting worse.

This week marked the beginning of the presidential primary season, and economic fears such as jobs and wages have taken center stage on the campaign trail.

Yet one of voters’ biggest economic problems has thus far received short shrift from the candidates: Americans’ growing inability to save for retirement.

A handful of Republican and Democratic candidates have laid out proposals for Social Security reform, but none have adequately addressed the substantial and growing deficit in total retirement savings.

The retirement crisis is real, as I’ve also been documenting for the past 15 years and most recently in my new book, Retirement on the Rocks. More than half of us won’t have enough savings when we retire to maintain our current standard of living and will have to make substantial spending cuts once we stop working.

How did we get here, what are the consequences and how can we fix the problem?

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

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Authors

Christian E. Weller

Senior Fellow