NU Online News Service, Nov. 17, 2003, 3:40 p.m. EST — Many Americans feel more upbeat and less fearful about their financial futures than last year's respondents to a survey by the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.), Boston, a unit of Manulife Financial, Toronto.
Manulife's second annual "Financial Dreams and Fears of American Workers" study found that half of all American workers still have not tried to calculate how much money they need to save for retirement.
Of those who have tried to set a retirement savings goal, however, 83% said this exercise had a moderate to large impact on moving them closer to their dream of a comfortable retirement. Only 61% say that regular saving each month without a set goal has this kind of impact.
The percentage of workers who say they are behind schedule or have not started saving for retirement shrunk from 75% in 2002 to 67% in 2003, Manulife found. Moreover, 70% said having a comfortable retirement is one of their top two financial dreams, up from 61% in 2002.
"Workers can have their dreams of a financially comfortable retirement come true, but they clearly have to do more to make that happen," says Mathew Greenwald, president of Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Washington, the firm that conducted the research for Manulife.
