By James LaForge — September 13, 2026
Economic strain has sharpened pessimism about retirement: recent surveys show many Americans now fear they will never stop working.
More than two in five Americans — 43% — say they expect to work until they die, according to a WalletHub survey released at the end of August. Nearly two in five respondents (39%) said thinking about retirement makes them feel anxious, and more than one in four (29%) said they expect to rely on family members for financial support once they stop working.
Worry about retirement isn’t new: Gallup has found a majority of Americans report concern about not having enough money for retirement every year since 2001, making it the country’s top financial worry for more than two decades. The latest wave of anxiety is arriving as inflation has climbed back onto Americans’ list of primary financial concerns. Fortune has tracked these shifts across the retirement landscape, from the erosion of pensions to a widening savings gap.
Rising prices have been most visible in essentials such as gasoline and groceries. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline hit $4.27 this week — up 13 cents in the past seven days, according to AAA — while the average price of ground beef reached $6.89 a pound in July, up 9.4% from a year earlier, per the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The effect is widespread concern about the future. A report released in August by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) found that among the 61% of Americans worried they won’t achieve financial security in retirement, 73% cited inflation as a contributing factor and 62% pointed to market volatility. Those pressures are reflected in the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, which found worker confidence in having enough to retire comfortably slipped six points to 61%.
Debt is compounding the problem and reducing people’s ability to save. In the NIRS report, 74% of respondents said debt is a problem, and 77% said it prevents them from saving adequately for retirement. WalletHub’s survey similarly found that 53% of respondents prioritize paying off debt over making retirement contributions. That helps explain why nearly four in 10 Americans nearing their 60s don’t have a retirement account at all, as Fortune has reported.
Retirement benefits beat working from home as a perk
Despite financial strain, retirement benefits remain highly valued. Among current workers, 75% say retirement benefits are a very or extremely important factor when considering a job opportunity, and 41% say those benefits have grown more important over the past year, according to the NIRS report.
Individual worries mirror a broader pessimism about the attainability of retirement. The NIRS report found 80% of Americans believe the country is facing a retirement crisis, up from 67% in 2020. Half of WalletHub’s respondents (50%) said it isn’t realistic for the average American to retire comfortably. TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett has described America’s $4 trillion retirement shortfall as “a real crisis,” warning that roughly 40% of Americans risk running out of money.
For some older Americans, continuing to work is a choice rather than a necessity: nearly 20% of those 65 and older are employed, roughly double the share from 35 years ago. But for millions, the idea of never stopping work is a source of dread rather than fulfillment.
New complications are emerging. The NIRS report found 53% of Americans oppose employers offering cryptocurrency as an option in workplace retirement plans, and 77% consider crypto in those plans risky. Attitudes toward artificial intelligence are also cautious: nearly half (45%) said they’re uncomfortable with AI playing a role in delivering financial advice, even though a majority have used the technology.
While concern about retirement is longstanding, it has taken on a sharper edge amid a difficult economic outlook and continued uncertainty.
“Americans are telling us that retirement security is becoming harder to achieve as they struggle with the affordability of everyday life. Housing, healthcare, debt and other expenses are competing with the need to save for retirement,” Dan Doonan, executive director of NIRS, said in the report. “At the same time, Americans are confronting new questions about AI and cryptocurrency as the retirement landscape becomes increasingly complex.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
Source: fortune.com
