Retirement a Fantasy for Most NJ Workers? [AUDIO]
New Jersey residents aren't saving for retirement like they used to. A recent report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds 46 percent of all workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and many have nothing at all.
One New Jersey financial expert isn't surprised by the numbers.
"If you look at the numbers since the Great Recession technically ended in 2009, after-tax incomes, that is in terms of the purchasing power - real take-home pay, that's been going down for workers. The job market is still not great. Pay raises have not been as robust, so people in effect, they have less income that they could utilize to allocate toward retirement," said Maury Randall, chairman of the finance department at Rider University.
He said there doesn't appear to be an easy answer, especially if people don't have the money to save for retirement. "The long and the short of it is come those retirement years they may be forced to work longer than they had hoped, and their standard of living at that time will not be as great," Randall said.
On the plus side, Randall said the housing market is improving, which is increasing the value of homes and giving people who have been underwater better financial footing, but income levels do continue to lag across the board.
There has been some discussion about the government mandating retirement savings for workers, but Randall said that idea won't go over very well with many people, so it's probably not going to happen.