Americans are losing confidence in retirement savings

More workers and retirees are starting to worry about having enough money for their retirement years.

An annual retirement confidence survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research found more than a third of Americans don’t think they’ll have enough saved for retirement — the highest proportion the survey has recorded since 2017. That’s due to a combination of factors that are all hitting workers at once.

David Demming, founder of Demming Financial Services Corp., said the short answer is simple.

“It takes more money to live and retire today than it did 50 or 60 years ago with your grandparents,” he said.

Demming said the old pension model, where retirees got a fixed income until death no matter how long they lived, is a thing of the past.

“Today… less than 10% of people have pensions unless you're working for the government,” he said.

That’s been replaced with a model of a 401(k) plus Social Security. But Social Security is facing a shortfall unless the government cuts back on payouts to retirees.

“People know that they're going to live longer than their parents and grandparents, but they also realize they have less security than their parents and grandparents,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School for Social Research.

Ghilarducci said some of those people thought they’d go back into the workforce, but that backup plan isn’t looking so stable either.

“The labor markets aren’t reliable, so they might not be able to work, to make up for the shortfall,” she said. “It all adds up to lower confidence.”

Usually, a cold job market comes with lower living costs, like in a recession, and a hot job market comes with higher costs, like with inflation. Ghilarducci said workers are seeing the worst of both worlds.

Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at EBRI, said those higher costs mean people spend more on the same stuff.

“We see debt increasing, which is making it harder for people to save,” he said. “If people can’t save, that’s one of the big indicators for not having confidence and not having savings.”

That’s because if someone’s worried about today’s bills, they’re probably not contributing as much to retirement.

Meanwhile, Andrew Herzog, associate wealth manager with the Watchman Group, said investment apps and social media have made people much more aware of how their investments are doing.

“When you weren't that connected and you were busy living your life, you didn't notice the ups and downs on a daily basis,” he said.

Herzog said he’s getting more emails from clients with a negativity bias. “[Emails that say] I guess my portfolio is down, and things are heading in the wrong direction. I just logged on to Twitter, and I saw all these different tweets, and now I'm not feeling so great about my life,” he said.

None of the analysts were surprised by the survey’s findings. Social Security concerns, lower savings rates, and higher bills all constitute a perfect recipe for lower confidence.

More on Social Security concerns

• From November 2025: Many retirees get by on nothing but Social Security

• From August 2025: As Social Security turns 90, a new survey shows that 65% of retirees rely on it

• From June 2024: Social Security cuts are inevitable by 2035 unless lawmakers act

• From June 2024: Social Security benefits have lost 20% of their buying power since 2010, report finds

• From June 2023: Social Security has funding problems. How do we fix it before benefits are cut?