Will the Self-employed Survive in Retirement?

Solo-k Plan

According to the new survey by TD Ameritrade the self-employed are not saving enough for retirement 
The number of people who are self-employed has increased more than 14 percent since 2001. More than 10 million Americans work for themselves.

TD Ameritrade surveyed self-employed Americans owning their own businesses. The Survey results revealed many self-employed anticipate using  their savings to fund their retirement, but 40 percent do not save regularly and 28 percent are saving nothing at all.

Comparing this to regularly employed workers where 12 percent do not save regularly and 10 percent save nothing at all.

Generation X and Generation Y are a high risk group with 29 percent of Gen X and 32 percent of Gen Y saying they do not save for retirement.

The Survey results reveled a difference between how self-employed people are saving for retirement and where they expect that retirement money to come from. Nineteen percent of self-employed expect their business income to provide the retirement income and 14 percent expect to derive their retirement income from the sale of their business. Fifty-nine percent of self-employeds expect to rely on the money they save before they retire and 38 percent plan to rely on investments.

Self-employed people have higher retirement savings goals than those who are regularly employed. The median dollar goal of self-employed savers was $1 million, whereas $725,000 was the goal for those who work for someone else.

When making the choice on how to save, self-employed people look for options that fit their circumstances, are easy to set up, make contributes easy and allow for infrequent contributions. The self-employed are more likely to save in money market or traditional savings accounts than in retirement vehicles like Solo-k’s.