Retirement Risks Keep Rising, and This Is Why

Half of working-age households in the U.S. were on track in 2016 to be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement, according to the National Retirement Risk Index report out this month from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Thanks mainly to rising home values,1515789456166 that's better than in 2010 or 2013. But it still means that half of working-age households aren't prepared for retirement, up from just 30.4 percent in 1989.

The Center for Retirement Research calculates these percentages based on data from the Federal Reserve's triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, the 2016 edition of which was released in September. They come up with target income replacement rates based on certain household characteristics (own or rent, single or not, two earners or one, etc.), then estimate how many of the households in the survey are saving enough and can expect a big enough Social Security and/or pension payment to meet that target if the workers in those households retire at 65.