Data Dive: Retirement Runners

By Beth Pinsker

A multitude of studies break down retirement savings habits, the goal being to understand what keeps people from saving more efficiently and to try to turn that around.

One of the newest is from the CFP Board, a nonprofit trade group representing certified financial planners. It cuts retirement savers into four distinct groups, each representing about a quarter of American adults: confident savers, concerned strivers, tentative savers and stretched worriers.

The average professional American worker is probably a concerned striver – employed, college-educated, making more than $50,000 (but less than $200,000), married, with a kid or two at home who is under 18.

The CFB Board breaks it down this way:

The biggest concern for this group is credit card debt. There are things they want that are just out of reach, and plastic makes it easy to fall into debt. But, presumably, this group is trying to be responsible because 48 percent of them save monthly.

Among the four groups, the “stretched worriers” are the most differentiated. They don't have workplace retirement plans – only 40 percent compared to 60 percent in the other segments.  Almost all of them – 91 percent – say they are behind on their retirement goals, and their main retirement strategy is Social Security. It’s no surprise that this leaves them uncertain about their financial futures, while the other three segments are optimistic.

Of this group, 80 percent do not have enough money left over at the end of the month to save anything, while an equal percentage at the top with confident savers have a surplus.

What could turn this all around? The CFB Board’s survey does not show much of an age gap, but there is a significant gender gap, with women making up 65 percent of the stretched worriers versus 43 percent of the concerned strivers. 

There is also an education gap, with 22 percent of worriers having only a high school degree or less, versus 15 percent for concerned strivers.

Most of all, it comes down to income. Make more money and you have more to save. Sounds simple, but with an income of less than $50,000, which 75 percent of worriers reported, there’s just not enough to go around at the end of the month.

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