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Workers say they can’t afford to retire
Nearly 40 percent of working Americans
say that they will never afford retirement,
according to a new survey by the American
Institute of CPAs.
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive for the AICPA, found that 55 percent of
working adults said that they don’t know how
much they need to save to retire. Many who
think they know are likely off in their projections. Asked to estimate how much they
needed to retire at age 65 and live for 20 years,
those earning $50,000 to $75,000 annually
said $250,000, at the median. Assuming inflation and annual expenses of $50,000, that
amount of savings likely would run out in less
than 10 years. The ability to afford retirement
ranked as the nation’s most important financial concern for the second year in a row in
the annual survey.
“These statistics suggest we are on the
verge of a retirement crisis in America,” said
National CPA Financial Literacy Commission
chairman Jordan Amin. “Americans don’t
know how to prepare for their twilight years,
and many have put off figuring it out because
they’re struggling to make ends meet now.”
Indeed, higher gas and food prices in par-
ticular are taking a toll on family budgets, ac-
cording to the survey of 1,005 adults conduct-
ed by telephone interview March 23 to 27 for
National Financial Literacy Month in April.
Six in 10 Americans have changed their be-
havior to offset rising gas prices, according to
the survey. And 48 percent have made adjust-
ments to deal with higher food prices. More
than half of Americans, 56 percent, said that
they cannot save, tamping down consumer
sentiment. Only 16 percent said that they’re
financially better off now than a year ago, and
29 percent said that they’re worse off.
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“Not only are we behind much of the world
in encouraging research, the uncertainty of
the credit hampers long-range planning,” according to Giordano.
“Since the credit was enacted in 1981, we
have allowed it to lapse 14 times, including
the current lapse that was just re-instated,”
he said. “Most companies’ R&D plans are five
years out, but if the credit is only for one year,
that’s all you can realistically plan for. That’s
not going to motivate me to create jobs.”
Credit
FROM.PAGE.
52
EXTENDING THE CREDIT
A bill currently before Congress would pro-
vide the needed certainty by making the cred-
it permanent, Giordano noted. The American
Research and Competitiveness Act of 2011,
introduced as H.R. 942 in March, would ex-
tend the research credit through 2012 and
increase (from 14 percent to 20 percent) and
make permanent the alternative simplified
research credit. The Obama administration
has also included a permanent research
credit in its budget proposal.
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