OHIO — Inflation and rising prices are taking a toll on Americans. A new AARP survey reveals some worrisome trends among those who have not yet retired. More than three in four (78%) workers age 30-plus are worried about prices rising faster than their income. This includes a large majority of Black workers (72%), Hispanic workers (81%), and non-Hispanic white workers (77%).
For older Americans, debt is a big problem as well.
Mary Liz Burns, communications strategy director for savings and planning at AARP says increased expenses are really squeezing everybody, but older adults are finding it particularly difficult.
“They’re also not able to save for these emergencies when there is an unexpected bill,” she said. “And, really troubling is that they’re incurring more debt, even student loan debt. For people who are 50+, 20 percent of student debt holders are older Americans. So, even the debts that people are taking on are really increasing, and it’s really troubling trends out there”.
The survey said both debts and increasing expenses are making it difficult to save for the future. Burns said for those lower income individuals, the impact may be worse.
“When you get hit with, like, a medical bill, or an unexpected car bill, your car breaks down, or maybe something happens in your house, if you don’t have emergency savings, which a lot of people don’t right now because of those high prices, what ends up happening is that people end up going into more debt,” she said. “It becomes a cycle that people can’t get out of. Unfortunately, this is what’s happened for a lot of lower income, but also middle income Americans today.”
The survey’s data shows the top barriers to savings for retirements are everyday expenses (60%) and debt payments (40%). For older Americans, especially those on social security benefits, it’s really hard to make their checks last long. AARP recommends using their Money Map tool, to figure out how you can get those dollars stretch a little longer.
