For more and more Americans, dreams of retiring are morphing into a nightmare. The cause of this impending doom is two words: financial insecurity.

Iran PressAmerica: The New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis predicts that 40% of middle-class older workers will become poor or near-poor in retirement. Simply put, they're a house of cards waiting to fold.

The news gets worse each month as new inflation data is released. In September, consumer prices increased 8.2% from a year ago. And for people already struggling to pay bills, higher prices for basic necessities cut deeper into already thin budgets. Food prices last month shot up 13% from the previous year and gas prices are up more than 18% from 2021. While those in power and in the news media discuss plunging stock markets and the sharp pain that causes millions of retired Americans, another segment of our society is overlooked. They're the people who never had the means to invest in retirement accounts because every dollar they made was tightly accounted for.

For them, life is an ongoing economic recession – even after the S&P 500 once again soars to new heights. Without intervention, more older Americans will fall into this category. So much so that those living below or near the poverty line are predicted to increase by 25% by 2045.

Retired or not, many Americans are struggling to survive. Too many have to make a choice between buying food or even saving for retirement.

Almost a quarter of older Black residents in the state of Mississippi live in poverty, nearly triple the national average.

Many Mississippians who are still working struggle to survive; they're also destined to be poor in retirement.  By the time most Mississippians reach 65 or 75, there is no hope left.

Too many Americans have to make a choice between putting food on the table and saving for retirement. And people understandably choose immediate survival over a more comfortable life that’s decades away.

211

Related News:

114 mln Americans think U.S. healthcare system failing them: Poll

Poll: 93% of Americans concerned with high inflation