(MoneyWatch) The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) recently released its 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey, and the results are quite depressing.

-- Just 14 percent of survey respondents are very confident they'll have enough money to live comfortably in retirement. These results are the same as what was reported in 2009 and 2011.

-- Almost half of all survey respondents -- 42 percent -- cite job uncertainty as the most pressing financial issue facing most Americans. Only about one-fourth, or 28 percent, are very confident they'll have paid employment as long as they need it.

-- Many workers report they have virtually no savings; 60 percent say that the total value of their household savings is less than $25,000, excluding the value of their home and any pension benefits they expect to receive.

-- Almost two-thirds of respondents (62 percent) consider their current level of debt to be a problem.

-- Only 16 percent of those surveyed are very confident that their investments will grow in value.

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Is there any good news about retirement out there? Being an optimist, my natural inclination is to dig deeper into the report to find some helpful insights, and I was successful in finding suggestions that can help increase your retirement confidence. These four suggestions might be difficult to implement, but nevertheless, they point to the tough steps people need to take to boost their retirement confidence.

1. Pay down your debt.

The percentage of employed people who reported that their level of debt is not a problem and that they have confidence in their ability to retire is more than five times higher than the percentage of workers who report that debt is a problem. Paying down your debt now -- before you retire and most likely will have less money coming in -- is one of the smartest steps you can take to create a stress-free retirement.

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4 moves to make you confident of your retirement

A new report indicates that Americans' confidence in their ability to retire comfortably remains near historic lows, and that many are also still concerned about job security.

The 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey, published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, is the longest running retirement survey of its kind. It polls both workers and retirees on their perceptions of issues such as savings, job security and retirement, and the edition released this month revealed several troubling facts for American workers.

Retirement confidence remains historically low

The survey found only 14% of workers are very confident they will have the money needed to live comfortably in retirement.

Perhaps it is not surprising then that today's workers expect to stay employed longer. While only 11% of workers in 1991 expected to work past age 65, the most recent survey discovered 37% believe they will be working beyond that age.

However, some workers may find they have limited say in when they retire. The 2012 survey found half of current retirees left the workforce for reasons outside their control such as disabilities or downsizing.

Retirement savings not a priority

Workers may not feel prepared for retirement because many are not actively planning for it. Only 19% of workers feel very confident they are doing a good job preparing for retirement. Moreover, 56% of workers say they and/or their spouse have not tried to calculate how much they will need in retirement savings in order to live comfortably.

In addition, only 58% of workers are currently saving for retirement. Income appears to play a significant factor in whether a worker has saved money. Of those with household incomes greater than $75,000 annually, 93% have saved for retirement, compared to 35% of those earning less than $35,000.

For retirees, only slightly more than a quarter feel very confident they did a good job preparing for their retirement. Social Security is identified as a major source of income by 69% of current retirees.

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American Workers Insecure About Retirement Savings, Jobs

BROOKFIELD, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV - News), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today unveiled Retirement Illustrator, an interactive and collaborative retirement income planning tool. Retirement Illustrator from Fiserv helps advisors present retirement spending requirements and distribution alternatives, overlaying risk events such as withdrawal, longevity, survivor needs and healthcare risks to ensure their clients greatest concerns are addressed throughout their planning and retirement phases.

Retirement Illustrator provides financial professionals with the ability to forecast varying market conditions and the impact financial products can have on an investors retirement outlook a powerful sales illustration tool in todays volatile market. A highly graphical analysis can be generated with clients face-to-face or collaboratively by phone. An unlimited number of scenarios can be created at the touch of a button, giving advisors a robust and unique way to display side-by-side comparisons of how different product solutions, life expectancies and an array of life choices can affect retirement income.

Our commitment to continual innovation of technology solutions to meet the rapidly evolving needs of our clients is reflected in the creation of Retirement Illustrator, said Cheryl Nash, president, Investment Services, Fiserv. Retirement Illustrator boasts support for the front-office component of the Fiserv convergence strategy. The underlying technology of the solution gives financial professionals a powerful way to illustrate real-life scenarios and the impact on an investors retirement plan in a simple, easy to understand manner.

Retirement Illustrator uses Monte Carlo technology to offer simulations of retirement plans in favorable and unfavorable market conditions. The solution answers investors most important questions, like What If I retire earlier or later?, What if I allocate less money or more money or What If I die before my spouse?, all illustrated with intuitive, graphical demonstrations, said Nash.

A highly scalable, enterprise-class, web-based application, Retirement Illustrator is hosted by one of the highly secure, SAS 70 compliant data centers from Fiserv.

Fiserv has more than 3.6 million accounts on its wealth management platform and over one million UMA sleeves. With its acquisitions of AdviceAmerica financial planning technology and CashEdge data aggregation capabilities, Fiserv remains the leader in the financial services industry with technology that can support all functions of a wealth management business.

About Fiserv

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV - News) is a leading global technology provider serving the financial services industry.Fiserv is driving innovation in payments, processing services, risk and compliance, customer and channel management, and business insights and optimization. For six of the past eight years, Fiserv ranked No. 1 on the FinTech 100, an annual international listing of the top technology providers to the financial services industry. For more information, visit http://www.fiserv.com.

FISV-G

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Fiserv Launches Innovative Retirement Planning Solution

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14-03-2012 05:54 Confirming 2012 will be his final season in the peloton, mutiple Irish champion David McCann speaks before the start of the final stage of the Tour de Langkawi about his season targets, the London Olympics and hanging up his wheels.

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David McCann talks 2012 goals and retirement - Video

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13-03-2012 11:28 Jay Hind! Episode 253 : Segment 2 - Watch some reactions to a sudden retirement. Crazy comments from crazier people. Vote with him at jayhind.tv

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Retirement Reactions - Video

What you see isn't always what you get.

I designed the "Mother of All Thumbwheels" that calculates Social Security benefits and the degree to which we will under- or overshoot our retirement income need. It also illustrates how much we will have in our retirement plans in 10, 20 and 30 years given different monthly contribution levels. It shows, for instance, that $500 a month for 10 years will accumulate to $91,000 if it earns 8 percent over that period. At 12 percent, the same $500 grows to $114,000. In 20 years, the comparable numbers are $294,000 and $494,000 respectively.

But, you may ask, who has been earning 12 percent when the total stock market, over the past five years, has had a compound average return of 2.11 percent per year? The answer would be anyone who just started investing exactly five years ago. Someone who started contributing in April 2007 has had an internal rate of return equal to 20 percent per year.

No way? Yes way. The share price of Vanguard's total market index today is exactly what it was in April 2007 -- $35 per share. Over the five-year span, however, the price has ranged from a low of $22 to a high of $38.

Anyone contributing $100 per month into a total stock market index fund was often buying shares in the mid-$20 range. A share bought for $22 could be sold today for $35, and that is a 59 percent profit. Believe me, a lot of shares over the past five years were bought at prices each month

Calculating the percentage profit we made on each monthly $100 investment and adding them all up brings us to a total account value of $10,272. Over the 60 months of investing, we contributed a total of $6,000. In simple terms, we can say that we had a five-year gain of $4,262 over what we put in, which is a 71 percent return. Divided by five years, it works out to be 14 percent per year.

But that's too simplistic. Remember that not all of the $6,000 was invested for five years. It built up gradually. Only the first $100 deposit was invested for all six years. The last deposit never got invested at all.

On average, then, we had $3,000 invested for the five-year period. Calculating on a napkin, we can see that our so-called "internal rate of return" or the return based on when the dollars were invested looks more like a $4,262 profit on a $3,000 five-year investment. That's a total gain of 141 percent which, when divided by five years works out to 28 percent per year.

When I do the same math on a calculator that takes compound interest into effect for each of the five years, the number works out to be 20 percent per year, but even this doesn't include the reinvested dividends of the total stock market that, during the same period, added almost 2 full percentage points to the gain, bringing the official number to 22 percent per year.

By now, I hope you are getting the point. If we stay the course during major crashes, our new inbound money will have enjoyed a huge rate of return by the time the market "snapback" has run its course.

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Retirement Planner: Staying the course can pay dividends

Retirement planning looks as daunting as ever, according to a new survey. Although the stock market has rebounded, only 14 percent of Americans, a historic low, are very confident their savings and retirement planning will be adequate.

A ruthless job market, suffocating household debt and a shocking decline in the stock market have left millions of Americans feeling fragile and with little confidence they will ever have the money toretire.

Retirementconfidence is at a historic low: Only 14 percent of Americans are very confident that they will be able toretirewith adequate money, according to research released Tuesday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. About 60 percent of workers say their household savings and investments total less than $25,000.

EBRI has been surveyingretirementconfidence for 22 years, and the number hasn't improved since 2009. That's when about 17 percent of workers were unemployed or underemployed, and when a 57 percent decline in the stock market left workplace 401(k)retirementsavings accounts in ruins. Confidence hasn't snapped back despite improving employment numbers and a 110 percent climb in the stock market since the devastation of the 2008-2009 crash.

"We were quite shocked," said EBRI research director Jack VanDerhei. He had assumed people would be more optimistic after "a fairly decent rebound" in the stock market and economy in 2010.

On the other hand, behavioral research shows that sharp losses can leave people feeling vulnerable for years. Even teens who watch families struggle through recessions doubt their control over their careers, said Antonio Spilimbergo and Paola Giuliano in a National Bureau of Economic Research paper.

EBRI also found that many people don't trust their jobs or investments to provide the money they will need for retirement. Fewer than 3 in 10 are very confident that they will have paid employment for as long as they need it. And 42 percent identify job uncertainty as an immediate concern. Only 16 percent are very confident that their investments will grow, and a mere 8 percent of workers are very confident the economy will grow at least 3 percent a year for the next 10 years.

Debt continues its stranglehold on households. Almost two-thirds of workers consider their current level of debt to be a problem.

Under the pressures of the past few years, many have used up savings, and fewer people are stashing anything away. In the recent EBRI survey, 58 percent said either they or a spouse was saving money for retirement. That's significantly less than 2009, when 65 percent were saving.

"Workers are falling further behind, and they know it," said Mathew Greenwald of Mathew Greenwald & Associates, who worked on the study with EBRI. About 67 percent say they are "behind schedule" with saving.

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Retirement planning: Stocks rebound, not confidence

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05-02-2012 12:41 This is a party everyone who likes MMA should attend

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Chael Sonnen Hosts Anderson Silvas Retirement Party - Video

Here's our retirement crisis in a nutshell: Americans realize that they need to work longer and save more, but in many cases they can't.

Reality intrudes in the form of layoffs, a chronically weak job market and sometimes poor health. Having skimped on saving in their younger years, folks know they should stay on the job well past age 65, but then they're forced to quit sooner.

In the Employee Benefit Research Institute's annual retirement confidence survey, 37 percent of respondents said they intend to work past 65. That's up from just 11 percent in 1991, which means that a generation of workers has largely discarded their parents' notion of a traditional retirement age.

When the EBRI talked to retirees, though, half said they had left the work force unexpectedly. Often, having to leave ahead of schedule led to worries about having enough money to cover even basic expenses.

In another mismatch between expectations and reality, 70 percent of workers think they'll work a part-time job in retirement, but only 27 percent of current retirees are doing so. A lot of people, then, are counting on income that won't be there when they need it.

Folks do realize that they may have to cut back. Only 14 percent of workers expressed confidence that they'll be able to afford a comfortable retirement. When pollsters asked about paying for medical expenses and long-term care, the very confident number falls as low as 9 percent.

The insecure majority of workers aren't just being worrywarts, either. They're responding to some very troubling trends in the economy.

The level of job insecurity is something we hadn't found before, said Craig Copeland, a senior research associate at the EBRI. We are seeing that even people with jobs feel that a lack of job security is one of the biggest concerns they have.

Furthermore, even people who have good jobs probably don't have a traditional pension plan, at least not in the private sector. Most of us are responsible for our own retirement security.

And most of us are falling short. More than 60 percent of workers, and 55 percent of retirees, have less than $25,000 in any form of savings, the EBRI found. That's not much, considering that many folks can expect to live 20 years or more in retirement.

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The retirement crisis: Even when we need to work longer, many of us can't

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13-03-2012 13:38 * Youtube Fair use of video policy. Freedom of information 2012. Video used only for informational purposes and not for anything else. * video Source: Bravotv Sean Avery Retirement Anouncement made on Bravotv's television talk show "Watch What Happens Live" This video wasn't available to Canadians for some dumb reason.. so here it is for the world! enjoy! 🙂 Speculation was at first from multiple sports news source that he was seriously retiring.. however his agent openly said it wasn't serious. What does everyone think really?

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Sean Avery Retirement Anouncement 3/13/2012 - Video