As a growing percentage of Wisconsin hits retirement age, fewer and fewer seem prepared to leave the workforce. In the United States, the average retiree has only 12,000 dollars saved by the time they hit 65 years of age. Here in Wisconsin, almost one million workers between 18 and 64 do not have access to a retirement plan through their work. With Social Security never intended to pay for all of a worker’s retirement and most workers with little or nothing in other sources of retirement income, a recent University of Wisconsin study projected as many as 400,000 seniors in Wisconsin living in poverty by 2030. These grim statistics prompted Governor Tony Evers in 2019 to create a Retirement Security Task Force, headed by State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski. The task force just released their report. Here to discuss the report’s findings and recommendations is task force member J. Michael Collins a consumer expert with the University of Wisconsin.
