Why it’s hard for Americans to retire

There’s a reason so many of us don’t have enough retirement savings.

This video is presented by Metro by T-Mobile. Metro has no editorial influence on our videos, but their support makes videos like this possible.

Vox sat down with people in our New York City studio to talk to them about the state of their retirement savings.

By the standards of most financial experts, Americans are woefully behind on saving for retirement. The reason why is rooted in changes in policy to our retirement system with today's result being a flawed design in how people set aside money so they can one day stop working.

In this video, we interviewed four people about their level of retirement preparedness and two experts about the state of retirement readiness more broadly in the US. One culprit lies in changes to the country’s pension system, which sets the US apart from countries like Australia and the UK; these places have systems which help more people save more money for retirement.

Sources and further reading:

Vanguard’s “How America Saves” report was recommended by one of our experts, John Scott, and provided some of the data in the video:

John Scott’s work at the Pew Charitable Trusts includes how lack of retirement readiness impacts state and federal budgets:

Teresa Ghilarducci has written extensively about retirement, including her book Work, Retire, Repeat:

Sen. Bernie Sanders has released a report about how the state of US retirement impacts low-income seniors:

We used the TransAmerica Retirement survey for some of our data:

[OnlyDoniaUKnow]

No conversations with people who earn less than 6 figures 🙄

[HTParty]

If you make 140k and only managed to save 3k on your own, that's on you.

[jeffreynicol]

You should've interviewed some middle-aged people making 35k or less. That'll paint a more realistic picture of how bad things actually are. Not a bunch of people making over six-figures.

[Alxium]

I love how this completely ignores people who make less than $100k, which is well over half of Americans.

[Riggsnic_co]

I believe the retirement crisis will get even worse. Many struggle to save due to low wages, rising prices, and exorbitant rents. With homeownership becoming unattainable for middle-class Americans, they may not have a home to rely on for retirement either.

[AccidentallyOnPurpose]

Why is everyone in this video upper class? This does not represent the majority of america

Edit: to avoid having to reply to everyone. classes in the US are calculated by your marriage status and how many dependents you have (children, elderly). If you are single with no dependents, these incomes would be considered upper class.

[sludgeman]

The avg salary in the US is around 50-60k. Using all these ppl with salaries above 100k suggests that the reason why ppl don’t save is financial literacy.
When you have to decide between paying rent and eating or saving for the future, it’s just simple math

[noahzimmerman-ygqt]

Most Americans find it hard to retire comfortably amid economy crisis. Some have close to nothing going into retirement, my question is, do I pull cash from my 401k and buy a house, or spread my money in stocks for cashflow? I'd love to afford my lifestyle after retirement?

[Greggsberdard]

The rising prices have impacted my plan to retire at 62, work part-time, and build my savings. I'm concerned that those who went through the 2008 financial crisis may have faced fewer challenges than I do now. The stock market's volatility, along with a reduced income, is making me anxious about having enough for retirement.

[aceshigh]

Why Americans cant retire: featurng four upper class individuals who are terrible at managing their expenses. Very insightful.

[tmer]

With the economy in a slump, most Americans find it difficult to retire comfortably. Some people have almost nothing when they retire. My question is, will you pay off your mortgage when you're almost retired, or will you save money for unexpected expenses, such as bills, to support your lifestyle?

[FelineAirstrip]

Retirement is now more difficult than it was in the past. I've been saving for a long time instead of investing, and right now I only have about $400K. considering all the inflation, i'm thinking of investing in stocks, i dont just have idea on market strategies.

[CollinHeist]

The guy saying he makes $135k and "that's not bad" is hilarious. That's like double the median annual household income.

[sanikura]

I'm 54 and my wife and I are VERY worried about our future, gas and food prices rising daily. We have had our savings dwindle with the cost of living into the stratosphere, and we are finding it impossible to replace them. We can get by, but can't seem to get ahead. My condolences to anyone retiring in this crisis, 30 years nonstop just for a crooked system to take all you worked for.

[tonysilke]

Most Americans find it hard to retire comfortably amid economy downtrend. Some have close to nothing going into retirement, my question is, will you pay off mortgage as a near-retiree, or spread money for cashflow, to afford lifestyle after retirement?

[meadowsirl]

Just 9% of US workers earn over 100k in individual salary or 100% of people in online videos for some reason.

[Kaustavpatell]

Most people don’t realise it, but the secret to retiring comfortably is finding a way to make returns while your money works for you. My dad, as I remember, started saving for retirement quite late, but I know he was making more than 10k returns from his investment monthly and it was completely passive.

[Peterl]

As a 48-year-old doctor, I'm experiencing burnout from extended work hours and stress. Because I've always thought the economy would eventually collapse, I've never invested in a retirement portfolio. But I'm curious, as I'm going to retire soon, how would you start investing $1 million in safe stocks over the course of four to five years to grow?

[RhondaArmstrong-yd]

As a soon retiree, keeping my 401k on course is my top priority. I have been reading of investors making up to 250k ROI in this current crashing market, any recommendations to scale up my ROI before retirement will be highly appreciated.

[cassif]

The more I find out about american finance, the more I start to think that being born in eastern Europe wasn't so bad after all