One-third of US workers save $ 401,000 – Quartz at Work

Here's a statistic that would not surprise many of your colleagues: 49% of US workers live on a wage-to-salary basis, according to this year's MetLife survey on benefit trends.

Given this pressure, another conclusion of the survey is perhaps less surprising: nearly a third of respondents (30%) who contribute to a defined contribution plan say they have tapped into their retirement savings, decision that advisors discourage usually because of anticipated withdrawal penalties, or potential growth loss (from compound interest) that is unavoidable with a loan. In addition, most people are already terribly ill-prepared for retirement.

The MetLife study, which includes data on 2,600 people working full-time in the United States and aged 21 and over, and conducted by Engine Insights, revealed that this raid on retiree accounts was fairly uniform. distributed among the generations.

It revealed that 28% of baby boomers (aged 53 and over) who were about to retire had already used their accounts, most often to repay a general debt or to buy or repair a home. . The same was true for 22% of Millennials (aged 23 to 36), Generation Y, who cited unexpected expenses and debts, including medical bills and student loans. By incorporating Generation Z responses for the first time (ages 21 and 22), this year's survey found that over one-quarter (26%) of this group had also borrowed or withdrawn money from their retirement . Their reasons? Medical debt, student debt, general debt and, for 20% of Generation Z members, buy a car.

The worst offenders, however, were Generation X (aged 37 to 52), the most disadvantaged and the least engaged, according to the study. Among the "sandwich generation", so named because they often look after children and elderly parents, a third had already turned to their retirement account to get some money, mainly to pay for expenses unforeseen and unpaid bills (although city bonds by 8% of this population.)

MetLife, which offers insurance and employee benefits, has a strong interest in promoting better "financial well-being" at work and in citing statistics, such as in this report, that one in three employees are distracted by financial difficulties, or that 52% of employees report waiting to postpone their retirement due to their financial situation. (This represents a 15% increase since MetLife conducted the same study in 2015.) However, its findings on retirement savings recipients reflect trends found in other studies. In fact, young workers can draw cash from their retirement savings at even higher rates.

Research also reveals that today's workers expect companies to help them out of their financial difficulties – not only by paying them properly, but by providing the tools they need to understand what they are doing with loans students, house payments and daily management. budget one day. Again, if the message fits well with MetLife's products, it also evokes a broader paradigm shift: business creation, mostly in rich countries, that function almost like nannies, taking care of an employee providing not only health care and insurance, also tacos, mbadages and pods.

"Everyone is talking about stress, and the stress is largely:" I do not have money, "said Todd Katz, executive vice president of MetLife and head of group social benefits. United States, at a media event in New York. the week. "What's different is that employees now say," Employer, I want you to help me. "