The FINANCIAL — It’s something that keeps many Americans up at night, tossing and turning, worrying about whether they have enough money to do a myriad of things – retire, meet unexpected costs, and so forth.
Three-quarters of U.S. adults who are not retired yet (74%) say they worry about having enough money to retire and seven in ten of this group (69%) say planning for retirement is a key priority to them. One thing those not retired are not planning for is social security – just about one-third (35%) say they have faith in social security being there when they retire. This drops to one-quarter of Millennials (27%) and three in ten Gen Xers (30%), according to Harris Interactive Inc.
Health care is another worry for Americans. Two-thirds (67%) say they worry about being able to afford unexpected health care costs. Among those who are not yet retired, seven in ten (70%) worry about being able to pay for their health care costs when they retire.
Saving… or rather, trying to save money
Almost seven in ten Americans (69%) say they are currently putting money toward any savings. One reason for those who aren’t may be that almost half of unretired U.S. adults (46%) say they live paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to put money in savings. Among those saving, the top goals are rainy day funds for unexpected costs (65%) and retirement (52%). But, those saving are also doing so for some fun reasons as three in ten (31%) are saving for a vacation, according to Harris Interactive Inc.
Not surprisingly, priorities change considerably by age; just two in five Millennials (39%) are saving for retirement, while over three in five Gen Xers and Baby Boomers (62%) say they are. Millennials are also more likely then the three older generations to be saving money for a car purchase (24% vs. 11%, 10%, and 15%) and a home purchase (24% vs. 7%, 4%, and 3%).
A windfall comes their way, and…
It’s something we all dream about – winning the lottery or having the distant relative you never knew about leave you money. But, if $100,000 came their way, what would Americans be mostly likely to do with it? Almost three in five (57%) would pay off an existing debt and/or loans while two in five (42%) would put money into a rainy day fund and save for unexpected expenses. One-third (33%) of Americans would invest toward their retirement while over one in five would go on vacation (23%) or buy a car (21%). Smaller numbers of U.S. adults would treat themselves to something they would not normally spend money on (16%), donate to charity (16%), buy a house (15%), pay for their kids’ college (10%) and go back to school (6%), according to IDC.
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