Can Americans afford to retire? New evidence on retirement saving adequacy

Traditional mechanisms that spread mortality and longevity risk across a po pulation group are increasingly being replaced by saving vehicles that leav e this obligation in the hands of individual households. We explore the que stion of whether households are adequately saving for their future retireme nt by reviewing recent literature that examines household behavior in prepa ring for retirement - both in the accumulation phase and the decumulation p hase - and by exploring representative households on the verge of retiremen t. While the median married couple of approximately fifty-five years of age holds assets totaling nearly $400,000, they still must engage in substanti al saving to retire comfortably at age sixty-two.