More Americans today have no retirement savings and/or no personal savings than 18 months ago, a recent Harris Poll survey found.
The online poll, taken in November last year, found that 34% of respondents claimed they have no retirement savings, up from 30% in May 2009. In addition, 27% claimed they had no personal savings, up from 22%.
Shockingly, 25% of those aged 46-to-64 said they had no retirement savings, with 22% of those 65 and over stating the same thing.
Among the younger crowd, 53% of those 18-to-33 years old did not have any retirement savings and 32% of those in the 34-to-45 year old bracket did not have any retirement savings.
Overall, 22% of the respondents had their retirement savings in an equal mix of stocks/mutual funds and investments in bonds/money market funds.
Another 18% said they were mostly in stocks/mutual funds and 10% said mostly in bonds and other stable investments.
The majority of those with retirement savings did not change any of their savings and investments in the prior six months, 74% in the most recent survey, vs. 65% in the May 2009 survey.
Harris broke this down further and found 63% of college graduates and 65% of those with a post-graduate education did not move any of their retirement savings.
Of those that did, 14% of college grads and 9% of post grads added to stocks/mutual funds; 10% and 11%, respectively added to bonds/mutual funds; 10% and 15% increased their contribution to their 401(k), 403(b) or IRA account while 7% and 5% reduced their contributions to those accounts.
"Current economic conditions seem to be driving somewhat less risky investment behavior by Gen Xers, which goes against the grain of traditional investment advice," stated Barbara Bertner, vice president of financial services research for Harris Interactive. "A combination of trust and education would likely bring these consumers back into alignment with traditional investment thinking."
