Many NJ Residents Worried About Retirement [AUDIO]

Are you looking forward to retiring some day?

It turns out many Garden State workers are not.

A TD Ameritrade found only 52 percent of working adults agreed with the state statement, "I am looking forward to retirement," and not surprisingly, lack of funds is a major reason why.

Dr. Maury Randall, the Chairman of the Rider University Finance Department says the recession really did a number on many people's nest egg.

Randall explains, "Since they're not going to be working, that's going to leave a major gap in terms of their cash-flow…Also it's difficult when they're only getting very meager returns to the degree that they have a fixed income security - securities that provide them interest - it's more difficult…So, if people were planning to live in a certain lifestyle after retirement and they thought they had enough, some years ago, now they see they don't have enough."

He also points out, "There are many people who haven't really saved an ample amount - they may have thought their house would provide them with a great deal of financial resources when property values were going up - and they may not have put enough in financial investments…Unfortunately, a number of people didn't really adequately set aside monies to live in a certain type of lifestyle that they were hoping for."

In addition, Dr. Randall says there are lingering concerns about Social Security and Medicare.

"Medicare seems to have the earlier date when there's going to be trouble in the system…We've heard assurances about this but you know they're based on certain assumptions that exist out there and sometimes these assumptions can go array…Many of the numbers that you hear on how long it's going to last - particularly with Medicare - are based on very faulty assumptions…I hate to be so gloomy, but when you see the uncertainties of the world…We realize these problems are looming…We see some evidence that bad things can come when public monies are not properly cared for."

The survey also found some people are not looking forward to retirement because they enjoy working - and they're afraid they'll be bored once they retire.