Many retirees live in a stark reality in which they believe they don’t have nearly enough money saved to make it through retirement.
The average retiree believes they need $823,800 to spend their golden years comfortably, but only have $288,700 saved, exposing a wide gap, according to a 2025 survey of 1,000 American retirees published Tuesday by Clever Real Estate. The report also found that 29 percent of retirees have no retirement savings.
“Typical retirees have significantly less in savings and investments than they feel they need to comfortably enjoy the final chapter of their lives,” the company said.
The savings noted in the report include money that retirees have in deposit and investment accounts, which include retirement vehicles such as 401(k)s and IRAs.
The disparity increased significantly year on year. In 2024, retirees said they needed $580,310 and had $308,040 saved.
Accordingly, the study found that 64 percent of retirees believe the country is in a retirement crisis. Less than half of respondents (41 percent) believed that retirement would be possible for the average American in 25 years.
To counter the crisis, retirees are relying on their homes as a way to cut costs and grow wealth. Among the 73 percent of retirees who own a home, 45 percent said they think their home is the sole reason they can enjoy a comfortable retirement. Just over 7 in 10 retired homeowners said they would “do everything possible to stay in their home – even if they could barely afford it,” the report said.
Part of the reliance on homeownership is due to the perceived high cost of living in retirement communities. Some 90 percent of respondents said they believe that retirement communities are “unaffordable”.
With a money crisis looming for retirees, doubts about financial security ran high, the report said. Almost half of retirees said they aren’t confident that they have the money to sustain their quality of life down the road, and 23 percent of retirees believed they could only financially sustain their quality of life for the next 12 months.
As retirees struggle to remain positive about their golden years, anxieties may run higher among women. Clever’s report found that women have around $70,000 less in their savings than men, noting that the difference “results not just in fewer opportunities in the present but also decreased potential to generate future income from these investments during retirement.”
The study’s findings fall in line with wider trends in retirement. More than 19 million households don’t have the income they need to cover basic expenses, and nearly half of adults who are 60 or older have an income that’s “below the standard needed to afford basic needs,” the National Council on Aging found in a 2025 study.
“The future of aging in America will likely be defined by an ever-widening inequality in both financial status and mortality, deepening the divide between the majority of older Americans (the 80%) and the top 20%,” the council stated.
