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Retirement Replaces Home Ownership as ‘American Dream’
Greetings,
Retirement Replaces Home Ownership as ‘American Dream’
(NEW YORK) Most people still believe they can achieve the American dream, even after slow employment growth following a harsh recession, but many now define it as having a comfortable retirement rather than owning a home.
About 96 percent of people responding to a Wells Fargo/Gallup poll conducted at the end of May cited a financially secure retirement as their version of the American dream. That’s an increase from 92 percent a year ago, and higher than the 93 percent of people who identified success as buying a home.
The poll surveyed a mix of retired (28 percent) and non-retired (72 percent) adults with at least $10,000 in savings and investments. Forty-one percent of respondents reported an annual income of $90,000 or more.
The exact definition of the American dream has changed somewhat since the term was popularized in James Truslow Adams‘ 1931 book “The Epic of America.” In it, he wrote: “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”
Since then, social and economic mobility have generally been associated with such markers as owning a home, attaining higher education, and living as well as — if not better than — one’s parents.
Specifying a comfortable retirement as part of that goal wasn’t necessary in previous years as many retirees were almost guaranteed one via their employer’s pension plans. As 401(k)s became more the more popular employer-sponsored retirement plan following the Revenue Act of 1978, workers increasingly found themselves on the hook for ensuring that they had enough money to last them through old age.
“There has been a rapid, systemic shift in risk and responsibility from the government to the individual in managing retirement,” said Andrew Eschtruth, an associate director at Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research. “Most individuals don’t yet fully grasp this change.”….More Here
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