Would You Pass Retirement IQ Test?

As part of the new Retirement Income Literacy Survey from the American College of Financial Services, a startling new reality has come to light. Recently released, this new study that shows 80% of Americans fail a test of basic knowledge on how to survive retirement on the nest egg they’ve created. They state that “a large majority of people age 60-75 with at least $100,000 in assets lack the knowledge they need for a financially secure retirement in areas such as life expectancy, Social Security, long-term care needs, investment risk and more.

How did the grades stack up

Less than 1% of all respondents scored an A. 1% Scored a B. 5% scored a C. That’s less than 7% so far. 14% scored a D and a whopping 80% scored an F! Even in light of these abysmal scores, the study states that more than half the survey’s sample consider themselves well-prepared to meet their needs in retirement and 91% are “at least moderately confident” that they will be able to provide themselves a comfortable retirement.

4% Rule

Do you know the 4% rule? 69% of respondents were unfamiliar with the safe withdrawal rate in retirement. 16% thought it would be save to withdraw as much as 8% a year in retirement while another 20% leaned further back to only a 2% withdrawal being the safest way to go.

Social Security

Would you be one of the 53% who knew that it is best to wait to claim it until age 70? This could be a critical decision for the safety of one’s financial security.

More factors

How much risk should you take after age 65? How do the interest prices affect your bonds?

How RetirementView Software can help

Use your RetirementView Software to SEE a picture of what your retirement nest egg can really do. You can play with different scenarios and watch the graph change indicating a better or worsening situation.