Up three percentage points up from an all time low in 2009, the percentage of American workers who feel “very confident” that they will have enough money for a comfortable retirement is 16%.

Not to play Devil’s Advocate, but we really need to rephrase that: 84% of the American workforce doesn’t think they’re going to have enough money to retire comfortably.

When the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) sent out a press release on the 20^th Annual Retirement Confidence Survey last week, the headline read “New Research from EBRI”: Between 4–14% More U.S. Households “At Risk” of Running Short of Money in Retirement Due to 2008–2009 Recession.

Choosing their copy wisely, EBRI notes that: the likelihood of becoming “at risk” because of the economic crisis depends to a large extent on the size of the retirement account balances the household had in 401(k)-type plans and/or individual retirement accounts, as well as their relative exposure to fluctuations in the housing market.

No matter how you slice it, way more than the majority of us working folk have little confidence life will be grand after we stop working. This is not a good thing. Further workforce results provide:

Covering Basic Expenses 29% are very confident they will be able to cover their basic needs

Unaware of  Goals 46% don’t know how much money they will need to retire comfortably

Not Enough Savings 54% say the total value of their savings and investments excluding their home and any defined benefit plans is currently less than $25,000

No Savings At All 27% say they have less than $1,000 in savings (up from 20% in 2009)

In 2010, 33% workers were polled as saying they expect to retire after the age of 65. For workers who fall into some of the categories above, the amount of money they will need to save from unpreparedness and unawareness will be overwhelming to say the least. But what of the people who did/do have good plans in place? How much will these workers need to save to recoup their losses from the economic crisis?

“Early Boomer households, will generally need to save between 1 and 4 percent of compensation  more each year between now and retirement age”,  provides EBRI. (These amounts will vary to the personal and market profile of each worker.) While another 1-4% may not sound that bad, it may become quite challenging in a climate of increased taxes, higher employee benefit deductions and every changing inflation rates.

When it comes to providing for retirement, overall confidence may not be high, but it is changeable. Decide what you would like to have, try out some online tools such as, retirement calculators, to get a feel for your  goals and sit down with a professional advisor to construct the best plan for you.

Kurt Rusch  CLU, ChFC