{"id":626869,"date":"2026-05-06T13:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626869\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:05:20","slug":"the-gap-between-retirement-expectations-and-reality-and-how-to-confidently-bridge-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626869\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gap Between Retirement Expectations and Reality \u2014 and How to Confidently Bridge It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Boldin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most people\u2019s retirement plan amounts to a 401(k) they hope is enough and a general intention to get serious about it eventually. Two national surveys recently looked at what it actually takes to retire with confidence, and who has it.<\/p>\n

Only 61% of workers feel confident they\u2019ll have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, according to the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey<\/a> from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research. That\u2019s down six points from the prior year.<\/p>\n

Fidelity\u2019s 2026 State of Retirement Planning<\/a> study surveyed 2,015 Americans and found that 72% expect to retire on their own terms, up five points from 2025. Among those with a retirement plan, 83% feel confident about retiring. Among those without one, only 38% do.<\/p>\n

Have a Plan
\nNo Plan<\/p>\n

Workers who feel confident about retirement
\n83%
\n38%<\/p>\n

Retirees who say savings will last their lifetime
\n81%
\n45%<\/p>\n

Source: Fidelity Investments 2026 State of Retirement Planning study, national online survey of 2,015 U.S. adults ages 18\u201379, conducted December 2\u20138, 2025.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have a retirement plan yet, or you have one you\u2019re not quite confident in, that\u2019s where most people are. What produces confidence, both surveys show, is a plan that pulls your numbers together and gives you a picture you can trust.<\/p>\n

This is what the data reveals, and why clear projections matter.<\/p>\n

Most Americans Have a Plan but Not a Number<\/p>\n

74% of Fidelity respondents<\/a> said they have a plan to reach their retirement goals. And at the same time, 31% don\u2019t know how much they\u2019ll have saved when they get there.<\/p>\n

A retirement plan without a savings projection is just a starting point. Seven in 10 people know their target retirement age, so the direction is there. What\u2019s missing for most is the math: an income projection, a withdrawal sequence<\/a>, and some sense of how the pieces connect across 20 or 30 years.<\/p>\n

If that sounds familiar, you\u2019ve got company.<\/p>\n

Having a Retirement Plan More Than Doubles Your Confidence<\/p>\n

Having a retirement plan more than doubles the likelihood that people feel confident about their future retirement, according to Fidelity\u2019s 2026 State of Retirement Planning survey.<\/p>\n

Among retirees who had a plan, 81% say their savings will last their lifetime<\/a>. For retirees without one, only 45% say the same. Among workers, the picture is starker: The EBRI\/Greenwald retirement confidence survey found that only 57% believe their savings will last their lifetime.<\/p>\n

Retirement confidence, both surveys suggest, is a planning problem at its core. The people who feel ready are the ones who can see how their savings, Social Security<\/a>, and other income sources add up across decades of retirement. People who can\u2019t see that are mostly estimating.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a solvable problem, and it doesn\u2019t require a spreadsheet full of assumptions. The Boldin Planner<\/a> runs your specific numbers and shows projections across different scenarios, so you can see what your retirement looks like before you\u2019re living it.<\/p>\n

Do Most Retirees Get to Retire on Their Own Terms?<\/p>\n

Six in 10 Americans told Fidelity they plan to transition into retirement<\/a> rather than stop on a specific date. The alternatives they\u2019re weighing:<\/p>\n

35% are thinking about gig work or side hustles
\n29% are considering starting a small business
\n26% plan to consult or work part-time in their current field<\/p>\n

A plan built around a hard stop date doesn\u2019t address any of this. If you plan to work part-time for five years before stepping away, that changes when you\u2019d claim Social Security, how you sequence withdrawals, and whether you need to bridge health insurance before Medicare kicks in at 65.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also another issue to consider: A plan built entirely around a gradual transition may not survive contact with reality either.<\/p>\n

The EBRI\/Greenwald survey found that nearly half of retirees retired earlier than they planned, which was up from the prior year. Of those, 76% say the reason was something outside their control:<\/p>\n

A health problem or disability: 41%
\nChanges at their company (e.g., workplace closure, downsizing, or company reorganization): 35%<\/p>\n

Nearly half of workers say they expect to transition out of work gradually, but notably, about three in four retirees reported that they stopped working all at once.<\/p>\n

This is a helpful planning signal. A phased exit is worth modeling because it may be what you want. It\u2019s also worth modeling because knowing what your finances look like if retirement arrives sooner than expected, and not by choice, is a different way for you to prepare.<\/p>\n

How a Phased Retirement Plan Can Help You Prepare<\/p>\n

Phased retirement<\/a> means reducing hours or shifting to part-time and freelance income before stopping work entirely.<\/p>\n

As you manage that transition, income sequencing becomes a question. Which accounts do you draw from, and when? Tapping a 401(k) early while you\u2019re still receiving part-time income can create a tax bill worth modeling before you commit to anything.<\/p>\n

Social Security timing shifts too. Delay often still makes sense with part-time income coming in, but it depends on your projected benefit and your timeline. The only way to know is to run the numbers for your situation.<\/p>\n

The healthcare gap is the one most people underestimate. Between leaving full-time work and Medicare at 65, coverage can cost far more than people expect. If a phased plan doesn\u2019t address it, it has a real hole in it. If an early exit is unplanned, that hole can be expensive.<\/p>\n

What Retirement Costs Do Most Plans Leave Out?<\/p>\n

The healthcare number from the Fidelity study deserves more attention than it gets. Fidelity estimates retirement healthcare costs at $172,500 for a single individual, and 8 in 10 respondents expect those costs to be high.<\/p>\n

Only 25% of respondents are funding a health savings account.<\/p>\n

Which Accounts Do Retirees Draw From?<\/p>\n

Understanding the income side of retirement is just as important as the savings side. The EBRI\/Greenwald survey asked both workers and retirees about their income sources: what workers expect to draw from, and what retirees actually do. The divergences are noteworthy.<\/p>\n

Income Source
\nWorkers (Expected)
\nRetirees (Actual)<\/p>\n

Social Security
\n89%
\n92%<\/p>\n

Workplace retirement savings plan
\n83%
\n45%<\/p>\n

Personal retirement savings or investments
\n76%
\n68%<\/p>\n

Work for pay
\n75%
\n27%<\/p>\n

IRA
\n71%
\n54%<\/p>\n

Pension
\n66%
\n56%<\/p>\n

Roth IRA
\n60%
\n34%<\/p>\n

Home equity or rental income
\n58%
\n33%<\/p>\n

Guaranteed lifetime income product
\n57%
\n36%<\/p>\n

Source: 2026 EBRI\/Greenwald Retirement Confidence Survey, conducted online January 2\u201328, 2026; general population sample of 2,052 Americans ages 25 or older, including 1,007 workers and 1,045 retirees.<\/p>\n

Social Security is the one source where expectation and reality align. Nearly everything else shows workers expecting to count on income streams that retirees end up drawing from less, sometimes substantially less.<\/p>\n

Only 45% of retirees actually use a workplace retirement plan as an income source, compared to 83% who expected to. Workers are also counting on earned income in retirement that most of them will likely not earn. Only 27% of retirees actually use work for pay as an income source.<\/p>\n

Social Security is fixed and inflation-adjusted. A 401(k) demands decisions about when to start withdrawing, in what order, and with what tax approach. The income mix you\u2019re counting on shapes every planning decision downstream.<\/p>\n

Knowing which buckets you\u2019ll draw from, and in what sequence, is what a retirement income plan answers. Getting that picture in front of you, even roughly, can positively change how you feel about the rest of the planning.<\/p>\n

What Confident Retirees Do Differently<\/p>\n

The Fidelity study is clear on what produces the ability to retire with confidence: a plan that works through income sources, tax exposure, healthcare costs, and how withdrawals sequence across retirement. People with that kind of plan are more than twice as likely to feel good about where they\u2019re headed.<\/p>\n

Confidence isn\u2019t certainty. Retirement has too many variables for that. But a plan built around your actual numbers and timeline gives you something to work from and adjust as things change. That\u2019s a different position altogether from hoping it works out.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been putting off getting specific, this is a good time to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Boldin. Most people\u2019s retirement plan amounts to a 401(k) they hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-626869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}