Seven in 10 (69%) Americans plan to retire, but of those who don't think they will, 42% believe that they will never have enough savings to do so.<br /><br />That’s according to a new survey of 2,000 adults split evenly by generation, where 22% of Gen Z, 19% of millennials and 18% of Gen X don’t believe retirement is in their future. <br /><br />Despite approaching their 60s, 37% of Gen Xers say they won’t be retiring within the next 10 years. <br /><br />In addition to their savings concerns, respondents plan to keep working in fear that they need their income to support their family (21%) or because they started planning too late (22%). <br /><br />About one-quarter (26%) admit the fact that they never started planning for retirement will likely deter them entirely.<br /><br />Seven in 10 (71%) of respondents feel they are behind on certain life goals they thought they’d reach by now.<br /><br />The goals include their living situation (51%), career path (47%) and starting a family (41%).<br /><br />Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Prudential, results found 52% also admit they’ve fallen short of the amount of retirement savings they planned to have by now.<br /><br />And the retirement planning mindset varies greatly by generation. Forty-five percent of Gen Zers started thinking about retirement before the age of 20 and another 33% had it top of mind in their 20s. <br /><br />On the flip side, one in 10 Gen Xers admit they still haven’t started thinking about it, more than any other generation.<br /><br />Almost one-third (29%) of Gen Z think about retirement “always”, while 50% of baby boomers say it crosses their mind “often.”<br /><br />However, if respondents were hypothetically to retire tomorrow, millennials feel the most prepared (71%), compared to 66% of Gen Z and 62% of Gen Xers.<br /><br />“The survey data show that many Americans need help when it comes to reaching their retirement and other financial goals,” said Michelle Samuel, head of Prudential Financial's Direct-to-Consumer business. “Many people have been saving, but they want a better handle on where they are. Others aren't confident they'll be able to stop working, and they need guidance to show them a path to retirement.” <br /><br />Almost one third of Americans (28%) said that they do not have a strong understanding of what to do to plan for retirement. This was not a surprising finding when many aren’t familiar with the most common financial products used in retirement planning.<br /><br />More than half of Americans (59%) don’t have a 401(k), one of the primary savings vehicles for retirement. Of those who do, 21% don’t know how much money they have.<br /><br />On top of that, the majority of respondents either don’t have or don’t know what IRAs (65%) or annuities (72%) are.<br /><br />Two in five (42%) don’t have life insurance and another 11% don't know what it is. <br /> Retirement is not the only area where people aren't planning in advance. Three-quarters (75%) of respondents spend less than a year planning for major financial decisions, with 15% of Gen Zers spending one week or less.
