Retirement Anticipated Despite Lesser Lifestyle

A new survey indicates that fewer than one-quarter of Americans expect their quality of life to improve when they retire.

Despite that downbeat assessment, 59 percent of the 826 married Americans surveyed look forward to their retirement.

The poll was done last month for Prudential Securities by Yankelovich Partners. Half those surveyed were from households where both spouses worked, half were from single-earner households.

Almost half of those in dual-earner households want to continue holding a paying job after retirement. Only one-third of those with one wage earner want to continue working.

Two paychecks apparently doesn’t bring security: those from dual-earner households said they are less prepared for retirement than respondents from single-earner households.

Baby boomers started saving for retirement And baby boomers are getting a better jump on saving than their elders did.

Almost two-thirds of those aged 40 to 50 were savings for retirement by age 34. More than half of those aged 51 to 65 waited until they were 35, and 45 percent waited until age 40.

Investors buy funds, dump stocks

The public’s shift away from individual stocks and into stock mutual funds perhaps is best illustrated by the transactions handled by San Francisco-based Charles Schwab & Co., the United States’ biggest discount stock brokerage and a favorite firm of many do-it-yourself investors.

In 1995, as the stock market rocketed, Schwab customers were net sellers of individual stocks in all but three months. Net selling means the dollar amount of stocks sold through Schwab was greater than the dollar amount purchased. For the full year, customers liquidated a net $3.6 billion in individual shares.

By contrast, customers were net buyers of mutual funds in all but one month last year, and for the year they bought a net $7.9 billion.

In January 1996, Schwab’s net purchases of mutual funds totaled $1.9 billion, mirroring the record level of cash pumped into stock funds nationwide that month, which in turn has helped power the market’s latest surge.

, DataTimes