Dog Bites Man: Americans Are Shortsighted About Their Finances

The brief’s key findings are:

• Americans need to save more on their own for retirement, but human nature suggests they will focus more on day-to-day financial needs.
• Analysis of a recent survey confirms that a household’s level of financial satisfaction is tied more to short-term – rather than long-term – concerns.
• Even households that are in reasonable shape in the short term do not seem to focus more on distant concerns like retirement saving.
• And households that are more financially literate appear only modestly more attuned to long-term financial issues.