36 Percent of Seniors Say Their Finances Are Worse in Retirement

A new Transamerica survey calculated that 36 percent of seniors feel their financial health has declined since retirement, reports The Motley Fool . Avoiding such a decline can be accomplished in a few steps, by first specifying how much money must be saved to retire comfortably. This will depend on various factors, with employees assuming they will need about 80 percent of pre-retirement income to live comfortably after leaving the workforce. It is likely that a sizable amount of income will come from Social Security, and pre-retirees should determine that sum via the Social Security Administration website, using the 4 percent rule to work their way backward to estimate how much savings are necessary. Plotting out a retirement budget is the next step, and pre-retirees can start by considering their larger bills and what they might be at retirement. A third step is to adjust expectations as needed, factoring in the income they have access to and working backward from there.