Another day, another study showing many Americans' retirement savings is deficient.
A total of 45 percent of non-retired Americans aren't saving for retirement now, according to the new Edward Jones report provided to Newsmax Finance. That 45 percent includes 36 percent who plan to save for retirement in the future and 9 percent who don't.
While the overwhelming majority of us at least plan to save for retirement, "when it comes to retirement savings, there's a big difference between planning to save and actually doing so," Scott Thoma, investment strategist at Edward Jones, said in a statement accompanying the report.
"While intentions to save for retirement are legitimate, individuals tend to satisfy more immediate, short-term spending goals and push off their long-term saving goals."
That's a big problem for people, "particularly as they enter the critical savings periods of their 30s and 40s, when they have (and unfortunately waste) a tremendously valuable asset — time."
Almost all (90 percent) of the study's youngest respondents indicated that they either plan to or began saving in their 30s or earlier. However, when looking at respondents aged 35 to 44, only 64 percent actually began saving in their 30s or earlier.
Meanwhile, stuff happens, as they say (usually in more salty language), and that stuff can throw a major wrench into your retirement plans.
A total of 66 percent of Americans have seen their retirement plans disrupted, according to
TD Ameritrade's 2015 Financial Disruptions Survey.
And what are the disrupters? Of the 2,019 respondents, 43 percent cited loss of employment/lower wages, 36 percent cited family or home plans, 28 percent cited poor investment/business performance, 24 percent cited supporting others and 19 percent cited accident, illness or disability.
Financial disruptions cost Americans $2.5 trillion in lost long-term and retirement savings, the study concludes.
"Every human being faces the threat of a financial disruption because there will always be external factors that can upset the course of a person's life. The key is to have a financial plan that incorporates risk management, because no one knows when these disruptions can occur," Lule Demmissie, managing director of retirement at TD Ameritrade, said in a statement accompanying the report.
"Saving and planning for our retirement does not guarantee we will be 100 percent protected from disruptions, but what it can do is help shelter us from the unexpected and give us a stronger footing in adjusting after a disruption."
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