For 22 years, Gallup has conducted an Economic and Personal Finance survey in April that has surveyed non-retirees’ and retirees’ expectations for living a financially comfortable retirement.
This year, 45 percent of non-retirees say they will have enough money to live comfortably when they retire.
Yes, but: The reality is that 74 percent of today’s retirees say they have enough money.
Go deeper: This retirement reality versus expectations gap has persisted since Gallup began systematically collecting this information, although there has been some variation over the decades in nonretirees’ expectations. As Gallup noted in last year’s report, “Nonretirees’ outlook has been consistently lower and subject to swings based on the national economic climate.”
One fun thing: 20 percent of non-retirees surveyed said they would use home equity to help finance their retirement, compared to 23 percent of retirees.
