The impact of economic turbulence on retirement savings is the top financial concern of 25% of Americans, according to a Bank of America survey.
Also, recent economic conditions have caused 18% of those with at least one retirement account to withdraw assets prematurely, while 68% have not made early withdrawals, according to the 2008 Bank of America Retirement Savings survey.
The leading reasons for early withdrawals were near-term financial obligations, such as credit-card debt (26%) and mortgage payments (22%), with an additional 22% citing recent job loss.
One in four of the general public and one in three affluent Americans still have at least one 401(k) plan or 403(b) plan with a former employer. Of those, 48% of all workers and 46% of those who are affluent intend to keep their assets in the existing plan. The survey defined affluent Americans as those with investible assets between $100,000 and $3 million.
The survey of 1,000 people was conducted Nov. 5-12 by Braun Research.
