It should not surprise anyone that people are scared about the future of their retirement. Yesterday, the Financial Times had this:

Anxiety about having enough income in retirement is growing, according to a new Financial Times/Harris Poll, with more than half of adults in the US, France, Italy and Spain saying they are more concerned about this than they were one year earlier.

The most worried are in the US where 59 per cent of those surveyed said they were more concerned about income security in old age.

In the US, pensions are more likely to be the result of investments in shares but plunging stock markets have left a huge hole in retirement accounts.

The survey also found a uniformly high percentage of those seeking greater security for their income in retirement, with those in the UK, US, France, Italy, Spain and Germany saying they prefer using part of their pension fund to buy a secure income rather than gamble on higher investment returns later on.

That view was overwhelming, with a range of 84 to 87 per cent saying they would choose that option if they could.

   This is what many people have been pointing out for many years ever since the great "ownership society" rhetoric took off and 401k’s replace real pensions–meaning, defined benefit pensions where you did not worry every day if the stock market was up or down.

   Well, now, that the bubble has popped, people are rightly full of fear.