Retirement Unpreparedness is a GLOBAL Problem

This from The Canadian Press:  Not only are Canadians woefully unprepared for retirement, but there is a new report which shows that other industrialized countries are facing the same "ticking time bomb."   According to the US Census Bureau, 579 million people around the world are retired.  That number is expected to TRIPLE by 2050.  Their advice? "Don't rely on only ONE source of income."...Dennis

Special) - The media these days is full of reports about the Canadians' financial unpreparedness for retirement. Some recent studies show that Canadian Baby Boomers are more than $400,000 short of their individual retirement savings goal and there is a huge gap between how much money they say they will need to retire and how much they are actually saving.

Now a new global report by HSBC based on the opinions of 16,000 people in 15 countries shows Canadians are not alone in this financial predicament.

According to the report, an average of 12 per cent of working age people expect they will never be able to afford to retire. This number is higher in more affluent industrialized countries - 19 per cent in the United Kingdom, 18 per cent in the United States, 17 per cent in Canada and 15 per cent in Australia.

Seventeen per cent of people 55 to 64 expect they will have to continue working indefinitely. Forty-six per cent said they were unable to realize their retirement plans because they have less money to live on than they expected. Thirty eight per cent of retirees said they had not prepared adequately or at all for a comfortable retirement and of this group 14 per cent said they will have to go back to work to cover their financial shortfall.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 579 million people around the world are currently retired. That number is expected to triple by 2050.

People generally are living longer, often in better health, and have greater expectations for old age, all of which increases the likelihood that they could outlive our money.

Participants in the HSBC study attributed having a lower than expected income in retirement to insufficient planning, the global economic crisis, unexpected expenses, supporting children, debt, supporting parents, a decline in home values and getting a lower-than-expected inheritance.

"Generating an adequate income in retirement remains a major challenge for most people given the financial conditions created by the global economic downturn," the report says. "With social security systems to become less generous, people will need to rely increasingly on their own retirement savings."

Full Report: