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Survey: Americans Not Prepared for Retirement

Only 28 percent expect to retire comfortably

June 23, 2008

Key findings include:

• Only 28 percent say that they will be able to retire comfortably. One-third (33 percent) say they'll have just enough finances to get by when retired.

• Seven out of 10 say that they have set low expectations about their retirement prospects.

• Nearly two out of 10 (17 percent) say they will not have enough money to retire without worrying.

• Nineteen percent say they are afraid they'll never be able to retire.

Not all Americans are finding themselves in despair when figuring out how they'll be able to retire, however. In spite of economic concerns, 16 percent of those polled opted to raise their contributions to their retirement fund. The vast majority of those polled have continued to see the value in a retirement fund, with only 8 percent opting to stop contributions altogether.

"Retirement is something that everyone needs to plan for," said Julie Bandy, editor in chief at Bankrate.com. "In difficult economic times, it's important now more than ever to plan intelligently. The long-term benefits of keeping an active retirement fund far outweigh the short-term gains of not investing."

This national random-digit-dialed phone study of 1,004 adults 18 or older was conducted for Bankrate by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. The surveys were conducted from May 30, 2008, through June 1, 2008. The sample was weighted by demographic factors including age, gender, race, education and census region to ensure reliable and accurate representation of adults in U.S. households. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points.

The full text of the survey is available at www.bankrate.com/financialliteracy.

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