If you’re a baby boomer and you don’t have a Self-Directed IRA, you’re likely screwing up.

That’s the unpleasant news from a recent report from the Bankers Life Center for a Secure Retirement. Their research team surveyed 1,000 seniors nationwide with reported annual household incomes between $25,000 and $100,000 per year.

While we primarily work with Self-Directed IRA accounts and other self-directed retirement accounts, it’s important to understand that substantial saving is vital – even for self-directed investors who are otherwise financially successful. You can have all the business success in the world, but if you fail to save, and fail to live on less than you make, you may face serious problems as you get to retirement.

According to the Center for a Secure Retirement, their researchers found that baby boomers themselves felt that a nest egg of $500,000 is the minimum necessary for any kind of secure retirement. (In a low interest rate environment such as we have now, even this seems very low to us, in most areas).

Nevertheless, baby boomers have not been successful in amassing that amount for themselves. Despite a big tailwind in stock prices when they started becoming eligible for 401(k)s in a big way in the 1980s, and another major boom in the 1990s, and another boom in real estate prices in the 2000s, only 13 percent of baby boomers have investable assets of $500,000 or more, according to the study, The Middle-Income Boomer Retirement Gap: Savings, Education and Advice. What’s more, over half of those surveyed (54 percent) report having investable assets of less than $100,000. A third report having less than $25,000 in investable assets.

The result: Only 35 percent of boomers expect to retire by their 66^th birthday.

Other findings include:

• 62 percent of middle-income boomers have doubts that they will be able to live comfortably into their golden years.

• 83 percent of middle-income boomers have not received any specialized education on retirement financial security.

• 58 percent of them have no professional investment guidance at all.

Among the problems these boomers are facing: Rising health care costs. While health care costs are not rising as fast as they used to, they are still outpacing the rate of inflation. Eligibility for Medicare will help, but prescription drug plans are getting more and more expensive, even within Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage plans.

The housing market is also a significant factor in boomer retirement security. Many people in this age cohort were banking heavily on continued home appreciation and tapping equity for income in retirement. Naturally, these people got severely burned by the 2008-2011 crash as they approached retirement, and do not have the advantage of being able to wait 20 years before they retire for the market to recover.

The study also found that only about 38 percent of boomers surveyed feel confident about their retirement prospects. About a quarter of those surveyed report feeling “not too confident” or “not confident at all” about their own retirement security.

The full study is available here.

American IRA, LLC, is a nationwide leader in helping investors get the most out of their retirement accounts. Our specialty is Self-Directed IRAs, Self-Directed 401(k)s and other self-directed retirement accounts. While these strategies are not for everybody, they can be an excellent option for certain kinds of investors. We encourage you to visit our site, www.americanira.com, and download our exclusive e-book on Self-Directed IRA investing. You can also download any of our exclusive guides to using your IRA, 401(k), SEP, SIMPLE, or even Coverdell ESA account to invest in a wide variety of asset classes.

Give us a call today at 866-7500-472(IRA). We look forward to working with you.

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