Research shows workers are overconfident about retirement finances - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Many workers who are counting on income frompensionws won't get it, the survey found. About 62 percen t of workers expect to receivre pensions whenthey retire, according to the annual but only 41 percent say they or theitr spouses currently are covered by a pension plan. Over the past two years, 17 percenyt of workers or their spouses have seen their leveo of retirement benefits cut bytheir employers, accordinb to the survey. But only 32 percent of thesr workerssay they're saving more moneu on their own to make up for thesde reductions. Many workers are overconfideny about their financial situation whenthey retire.
The surveyh found that 43 percent of workers are somewhatf confident and 27 perceng are very confident about their financial securityin retirement. But amongg those who are very confident, 24 percent are not savingb for retirement, 43 percent have less than $50,000 in savingzs and 37 percent have not calculatedd what their financial needs will be whenthey retire. Employerz need to do more than just offer a plan to help their employees prepare for saidMatthew Greenwald, whose survegy research firm co-sponsored the study. They need to educatse workers about their retirement encourage them to save more and offeerinvestment advice, he said.
"It'sz not enough to say, 'Here'xs your accumulation,'" Greenwald Legislation enacted last year allowws firms thatmanage employer-sponsored retirement pland to offer investment advice to workers. More than half of the workers surveyed said they likely would take advantage of this service if itwere provided, but two-thirds said they woulf follow the advice only if it matchedf their own ideas. Many workers also don't have realistic estimates about how much moneyu they will need to pay for healtbh care whenthey retire, the studh found. Plus, many are counting on employer-paid retired health plans that may not be there as businesses cut back onthis benefit.
EBRI estimatesd that couples willneed $300,000 to cover health costs in retirement, assuming average life expectancy. The survey however, that more than half of workerss think lessthan $250,000 will be sufficient and one-third think $100,000 or less will be enough. The wantes to ban 14- and 15-year-olds from working at poultrhy plants, riding as passengers on forklifts orselling door-to-door. Loading or operating balers and compactersfor non-pape r products also would be prohibited. The proposes update to child labor laws also wouldallow 14- and 15-year-olds to work in banking and information technology.
"The proposal contains the most ambitiousand far-reachinyg revisions to the child labor regulations in the last 30 said Paul DeCamp, administrator of the department's . "It will safeguarr the health and education of millione of working teens while at the same time allowing them to enjoy the benefits of a phased introduction tothe workplace." The publicd can comment on the propose changes through June 16 by usingh the federal government's Web site. The , kicked off the second year of its campaign to keep teenagers safe durinhgsummer jobs. The agency is working with construction industry organizations to promot safework practices. For more information, log on to or .
Bankruptc filings dropped 70 percent last thanks to a new law that forces more debtor to pay off more oftheir debts. Bankruptcies, however, started creeping up againj in the fourth quarterof 2006, accordingh to the . This upward trend likelyt will continue this yearbecause "the debt burdenh on the household sector remains high," said Samuel executive director of the . Federal bankruptcy filings totaled 617,660 in the lowest number since 1988. The majorit y were consumer filings. Becausde of the new law's stricter filings under Chapter7 -- where unsecured debtws are discharged -- fell from 80 percent of consumee cases in 2005 to 58 percent in 2006.
Business bankruptcie s dropped 50 percent in 2006 to the lowest reported since the currentg statistics system was implementedin 1980.