Nearly half the U.S. workforce<\/a>, according to a retirement survey<\/a> of 1,000 full-time employees by fintech Betterment, which found that 48 percent believe they need more than $1 million<\/a> to retire comfortably. <\/p>\n That figure is up 11 percentage points from 2024, a jump that\u2019s driven, in part, by anxiety about financial security<\/a>, Betterment CEO Sarah Levy said in a statement. <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s striking that even as financial anxiety reaches an all-time high, Americans’ belief in their long-term financial future hasn’t faltered,” Levy said. “That optimism is encouraging, but employers play a critical role in turning it into real progress. Companies that invest in their employees’ financial well-being help transform confidence into concrete outcomes and create lasting value for their teams.”<\/p>\n The survey found that optimism about retirement<\/a> varied based on respondents\u2019 age, and that a significant share of consumers are anxious<\/a> about their finances<\/p>\n Anxious times<\/p>\n While almost half of employees believe they\u2019ll need $1 million at retirement to live comfortably, only 27 percent believe they\u2019ll actually accumulate that amount by the time they want to permanently clock out. <\/p>\n The disparity between what employees believe they need, and what they believe they can achieve, might be fueling persistent anxiety and generational differences in optimism about long-term financial stability. <\/p>\n Betterment found that nine out of 10 employees feel financial anxiety, and that the figure has risen 19 percentage points over the past three years. <\/p>\n Gen Z employees are the most confident about their retirement, with 88 percent expressing optimism. However, they also experience the highest rate – 73 percent – of anxiety about their daily finances, the study found.<\/p>\n A rise in rainy-day savers <\/p>\n Consumer anxiety seems to be driving a greater perceived need for increased retirement funds – but it\u2019s also pushing individuals to build up emergency funds (money saved to cover those unexpected eventualities like home, car and medical costs). <\/p>\n Betterment found that 68 percent of employees have an emergency fund, which marks a five-year high. <\/p>\n Generation game<\/p>\n The study revealed marked differences in generational confidence about retirement, job benefits, and economic instability.<\/p>\n Gen Z is most confident about their retirement, but also the most stressed about their day-to-day finances. The research also found: <\/p>\n Gen X feels the least prepared for retirement Millennials are likely to change jobs to get better benefits Boomers are pushing back their retirement dates because of market volatility.<\/p>\n Additionally, the study noted that women are more likely than men to delay retirement.<\/p>\n \u201cThese generational and gender divides reflect a broader tension: a growing disconnect between what employees expect from their financial futures and what their current savings behaviors can realistically deliver,\u201d Betterment noted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-187032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Some](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/iStock-937239132.jpg\")
Some 27 percent of US full-time workers say they don\u2019t think they\u2019ll reach their retirement savings goal (Getty Images)<\/p>\n