by Sherri Kolade
COVID-19 is, seemingly, almost in the rearview mirror as things are opening back up and people steadily opt for the COVID-19 vaccine. Yet, the pandemic is still having a financial impact on many Black people looking to save up their coins for their retirement, Black Enterprise reported.
A recent study by Real Estate Witch shows that the worldwide health crisis has cleaned out many Americans’ retirement savings and stock investments, causing baby boomers to no longer have a safety net for their upcoming permanent time off, according to the article.
The report states that COVID-19 has severely impacted this age group’s financial stress, making a large number of Americans to stop stocking up on their retirement savings. Another issue with the pandemic, is that 3.2 million more baby boomers retired in the third quarter of 2020 in comparison to the same timeframe in 2019, according to the article. Some of this group were forced into early retirement, too, with pandemic-related layoffs.
Some of the report’s key findings showed:
- Americans of all ages typically expect to retire around age 66, but 40% of boomers had to put retirement plans on pause because of the pandemic. Also, around 2.7 million Americans, (primarily rich and white), report they are looking at retiring early, because of stock market gains— another example of America’s major wealth gap.
- The average working American now has $250,813 saved for retirement.
- Baby boomers have an average of $296,064 saved for retirement. But that number is 36% below the recommended $465,000 and may not give enough room for boomers to make up the difference.
Sadly, Black Americans sometimes have fewer dollars saved for retirement and are more than likely to have financial troubles throughout their retirement years, the article added.
Younger Black Americans should also think about more risky investments to earn even more money for retirement, the article said.
Read the full story here.