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"Gone are the days of
simply sitting back and
collecting your pension"
PENSION
ALTERNATIVES
By Financial Advisor, Justin T. Meyer,
ChFC ®, RICP ®
If you haven't caught on by now, retirement looks very
different than it did just a handful of years ago. It seems that,
for most retirees, gone are the days of simply sitting back and
collecting your pension and social security checks. Retirees
nowadays face a totally different set of circumstances when
it comes to reliable income during their leisure years. Since
most employers no longer offer a guaranteed pension and
even some of the pensions that still exist are in critical status,
individuals entering retirement are forced to rely on their
own personal savings more. This can put a lot of stress on
investors and their retirement accounts. That, paired with the
fact that people are living longer, means that the need to be
strategic with your nest egg is now more important than ever.
The complexity of finances (e.g., inflation, interest rates, bond
prices, politics, payout ratio, taxes) makes it vitally important
that you have a plan when it comes to retirement.
In a study done by the National Institute of Retirement
Security, as much as 79% of Americans believe there is a
retirement crisis (1). The National Retirement Risk Index
published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston
College does show some improvement in retirement
preparedness yet still 39% of American households are under-
prepared for retirement (2). In the 2024 Fact Sheet released
by the Social Security Administration, it says that 27% of men
and women age 65+ rely on their social security for 90% or
more of their income, and 79% of men and women age 65+
rely on their retirement benefits for 50% or more of
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1 - https://www.nirsonline.org/reports/retirementinsecurity2024/
2 - https://crr.bc.edu/the-national-retirement-risk-index-an-update-from-the-2022-scf/
