Retirement Data: Fidelity Plan Balances Q1 2019

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Source: Fidelity

Fidelity recently released their Q1 2019 Retirement Account Balances press release. I focus on these numbers because of Fidelity's size. They have $7.4 trillion in client assets, including more than 30 million retirement accounts. Here are a few items to highlight from their press release:

• As of Q1 2019, 52% of individuals had all of their 401(k) savings in a target date fund, compared with just 16% in Q1 2009. In addition, a much lower percentage of individuals had all of their 401(k) savings in stocks -- only 7% of individuals had an all-stock 401(k), compared with 15% who had an all-stock 401(k) allocation in Q1 2009.

EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey 2019

Now in its 29th year, the annual Retirement Confidence Survey(RCS) is the longest-running survey of its kind, measuring worker and retiree confidence about retirement. It is conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and independent research firm Greenwald & Associates. From the report: "The 2019 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) finds that two-thirds of American workers (67 percent) feel confident in their ability to retire comfortably, though only 23 percent feel very confident. The share of workers reporting that they feel either very or somewhat confident has increased compared with last year (67 percent vs. 64 percent in 2018). Worker confidence now resembles the levels measured in 2007 before the financial crisis of 2008."

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Source: EBRI, 2019 RCS Fact Sheet #4 Age Comparisons Among Workers

To learn more about this survey please visit the RCS website at EBRI.

To read more analysis about this survey read Richard Eisenberg's article Americans are confident about retirement. Are we kidding ourselves? at MarketWatch.

May Market Update - V-Shaped Recovery, Now What?

After gaining 13.07% in the first quarter of 2019, the S&P 500 started the second quarter increasing 3.93% in April. If you are interested in learning more about stock buybacks and their impact on the stock market since 2010, please read Chris Matthews, MarketWatch's Markets Reporter, article about corporate buybacks. Let's examine price, sentiment, and valuation for May.