Retirees wish they'd planned better

BOSTON - Two-thirds of retirees are living the lifestyle they hoped for, but more than half wish they had planned differently in their final working years, a survey shows.

The Fidelity Investments survey also found that workers in their final year before retirement were for the most part financially unprepared.

Two-thirds of those polled said they had not completed a budget for their retirement years, while three out of four did not have an asset-allocation strategy to manage their income while retired.

"Retirement is a time that millions of Americans look forward to, but the actual transition from saving for retirement to living off of those savings can be worrisome and more complex than expected," said Steve Deschenes, executive vice-president of Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services, the country's largest provider of retirement plans.

Fidelity surveyed 755 retirees from large companies within three years of having finished work, and 749 employees at big firms with one year to go before retirement.

The survey also showed that employer guidance in planning for retirement was generally under-used, as 77 per cent of respondents said they had not taken advantage of it.

- REUTERS