A significant share of Americans believe they may never retire, with 43 percent admitting they see themselves working until death, financial services company WalletHub said in a Sept. 2 survey.
“50 percent of people don’t think it’s realistic for the average American to expect to retire comfortably,” WalletHub said.
“These concerns aren’t unfounded, given the heavy debt burden many households carry, the lack of adequate savings, and the uncertainty surrounding the future of government benefits.”
For instance, the average American household held $152,653 in debt by the end of the second quarter of 2025, WalletHub said last month, based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Meanwhile, the personal savings rate has been hovering below the 5 percent level since 2022, a stark contrast to pre-2022, when the rate remained mostly above this level, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data.
In the WalletHub survey, two out of five respondents said they felt anxious when thinking about retirement. One in four said they don’t have a retirement plan.
Even if I retire, I’ll still have to take a part time job or start my own work from home
With the excess MD taxation, over value on my property, and rose in the cost of living, I’m not bringing in enough. Moore has made sure that I can’t live comfortably on my retirement from 15 years ago. I just went back to work full time one everything became more expensive.
My husband and I have accepted this a while ago. We work but do not have enough income for basic doctor visits. Our plan is to fix our house up as best as possible and leave our home and life insurance to our kids. He just turned 50 last year. One of our kids is still little and we know we will have to take care of our aging parents as well. Our kids are more important to us than a comfy retirement.