Less Worry, Coping With Crisis, And More . . .
Affluent individuals are less worried about the economy than they were in 2008, a new survey shows. The reduction in concern may be a plus for the economy, said Bob Shullman, whose firm, Ipsos Mendelshohn, conducted the survey.
The percentage of households with $100,000 or more in annual income who worried about the economy declined in April to 46 percent from 60 percent in December.
Concerns about health care and unemployment also declined, Ipsos said.
Coping with crisis
Consumers are finding ways to cope with the recession and bear market that don’t involve delaying their retirement dates, says the McKinsey Consumer Retirement Survey.
Instead, they are cutting spending and paying down debt, the survey found. Also, more potential retirees are planning to leave smaller estates to their heirs as a way of boosting their own retirement incomes.
The majority say they have not changed their employer retirement plans in response to the crisis.
IRAs and 401ks shrink
Retirement assets plummeted in 2008, dropping by 22 percent during the year, reported the Investment Company Institute, the trade association for mutual funds.
Assets held in individual IRAs and employer-provided pension plans and savings plans declined to $14 trillion by the end of the year from $17.9 trillion at the end of 2007, the Institute said.