Anyone paying attention to the current presidential election knows that health care and retirement have been major topics in the campaign, and with good reason - Americans are gravely concerned about these issues.
Nearly three-fourths of those Americans who are not retired agree that they are worried about having enough money to do so (74 percent). Americans are also worried about being able to pay for health care costs in retirement (73 percent). These fears appear to be tied at least in part to concerns regarding social security, with only two-in-five (41 percent) of non-retired Americans agreeing with the statement, "I have faith in social security being there when I retire."
Seven in 10 Americans - retired and not retired alike - agree that they're worried about being able to afford unexpected health care costs (71 percent). These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,307 adults surveyed online between August 13- 20 by Harris Interactive. For the nearly two-thirds of Americans (63 percent) that are putting money toward savings, the top goals are rainy day funds for unexpected costs (62 percent) and retirement (53 percent).
Priorities change considerably in households with children; college savings show an exponential increase in importance among respondents with children in their households (44 percent among those with children in their households, 10 percent without), and this focus on college savings comes largely at the expense of rainy day (55 percent with, 65 percent without) and retirement (42 percent with, 57 percent without) savings.
The results show glimmers of hope for two industries, as one-fourth (26 percent) of adults 18-35 indicate they are saving to purchase a car, and 27 percent of all Americans are putting money away for vacation.
Forty-seven percent of Americans agree that they are living paycheck to paycheck and thus cannot afford to put money in savings, thereby providing no relief to their future worries. As might be expected, living paycheck to paycheck is more common among younger Americans (53 percent ages 18-47 vs. 28 percent ages 67+) and those with children in their households (55 percent with, 43 percent without). And debt is not helping: the majority of Americans (59 percent) would prioritize paying off debt if they came into unexpected funds.
"There is clear anxiety on the part of the American public regarding their day-to-day finances and those related to their futures," said David Krane, SVP Harris Interactive. "Yet rather than creating products and services that could alleviate these concerns, bringing peace of mind to their customers, the financial services industry continues to focus its marketing on products and services related to spending and further debt accumulation. Companies that figure out how to take advantage of this missed opportunity are likely to be those that will rebound from the trust disadvantage that the industry now faces and grow their businesses."
