77% of Americans Say Debt Is Blocking Their Retirement Savings
The National Institute on Retirement Security surveyed Americans nationwide in late 2025. Some 77% of respondents say debt is keeping them from saving enough for retirement. The same survey found that most people misjudge what their own savings will pay out each year. Many also remain wary of letting AI or crypto near financial decisions.
Debt has a way of eating a plan one minimum payment at a time. You tell yourself the savings will pick up once a balance clears. It doesn’t always work out that way. This survey puts real numbers behind that pattern, and behind two things retirement savers keep to themselves: how much their own savings will pay them, and how much they trust AI or crypto with a decision this size.
How Debt Is Cutting Into Retirement Savings
Debt is the main issue for a lot of retirement savers now. Almost three in four Americans call it a personal problem. 77% say it’s keeping them from saving enough for retirement. A lot of plans stall right there, before they even get started.
Almost half of Americans, 46%, carry credit card debt right now, more than in 2023. For a third of people with debt, it’s a major barrier to saving. For another 43%, at least a minor one.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York put total household debt at $18.8 trillion for the second quarter of 2026, with credit card balances making up $1.26 trillion of it. If some of that debt is yours, running the numbers shows whether paying it off faster moves your retirement date.
Why paying off high-interest debt beats almost any market return
Carrying high-interest debt while you invest is a losing trade, no matter what the market does.
Credit cards charge close to 22% APR right now, according to Federal Reserve data. The stock market’s long-run average return is closer to 10% before inflation, 7% after. A $10,000 balance at 22% costs about $2,200 a year in interest. Few investments clear that bar. Paying off the balance beats almost any market year, guaranteed.
The $100,000 Question Almost No One Gets Right
How much yearly income does $100,000 in retirement savings produce? Financial professionals often point to the 4% rule: withdraw about 4% of your starting balance the first year, then adjust that dollar amount for inflation every year after. On $100,000, that comes to about $4,000 to start. Economist William Bengen popularized the idea, and has since revised his own number upward to 4.7%.
Only 9% of respondents to the NIRS survey guessed close to that range. Here’s how the rest compared:
| Guess vs. the 4% guideline | Share of respondents |
| Matched the guideline | 9% |
| Guessed too high | 50% |
| Guessed too low | 10% |
Half the country pictures $100,000 paying out more income than it can support. Not knowing what your savings will produce makes it hard to know if you’re on track. The Boldin Planner shows your projected retirement income based on your actual accounts.
Both 4% and 4.7% sit well below the market’s long-run average return, and that gap is what trips people up.
Portfolio yield isn’t the same as a safe withdrawal rate
Portfolio yield is what a mix of stocks and bonds pays out on its own, dividends and interest, without touching principal. That’s often 2% to 4% for a balanced portfolio. A safe withdrawal rate is built to include a slice of principal, calculated to hold up through decades of market ups and downs.
That’s why 4% or 4.7% sounds low next to a 10% average market return. The rate is calibrated to survive a portfolio’s worst years.
How sequence of returns risk shapes a safe withdrawal rate
Sequence of returns risk is why order matters as much as average return. A 20% loss in year one of retirement, while you’re withdrawing, does far more damage than the same loss in year twenty. The average return can be identical while timing decides the outcome.
Bengen tested withdrawal rates against the worst 30-year stretches on record, including the Great Depression and 1970s stagflation, to find one that survives even those.
Get this wrong and the math turns unforgiving. Half of Americans expect to draw $10,000 or more a year from a $100,000 balance starting at 67, according to NIRS. At a 6% return, that runs out by about age 82. Most 67-year-olds outlive that age. A rate built for 30 years exists so you don’t run out first.
Why Americans Are Wary of Generic AI Advice
The same survey that found people confused about withdrawal math also asked who they’d trust to sort it out. AI is the obvious candidate, but comfort with it is still limited.
61% of Americans haven’t used AI to ask about their own finances, investments, or retirement, and 45% say they’re not comfortable with AI playing any role in financial advice. That reluctance holds even though almost two-thirds have used an AI tool for something else.
The generational divide in AI trust
Half of Gen Zers and millennials have used AI for a financial question, compared with one in five boomers. Only 7% of Gen Zers are not at all comfortable with AI giving financial advice, versus 33% of boomers.
That caution makes sense. Generic AI doesn’t know your numbers, your timeline, or what you can’t afford to get wrong.
Why the caution holds up
The quality of your prompt can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in retirement income. Researchers at Stanford and MIT testing ChatGPT 5.2 and Gemini 3 Flash found that people who wrote less detailed prompts about their own finances ended up with AI guidance that left them close to $50,000 poorer by 60.
A separate study in the Journal of Financial Planning found that when given identical financial profiles, platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini recommended very different target amounts for emergency funds, and inconsistent answers to the same retirement questions.
Boldin AI works from your actual accounts, timeline, and plan already in view, instead of a financial situation you’d have to describe from scratch to a general-purpose AI tool.
The interest in AI is still there. Americans say they’d use it for:
| Use case | Interested |
| Budgeting | 38% |
| Investing | 34% |
| Retirement planning | 32% |
| Paying down debt | 30% |
| Tax planning | 24% |
That interest holds even for retirement planning, which Boldin AI offers free on every plan.
What the Survey Says About Crypto in Retirement Accounts
The survey also asked whether crypto belongs in workplace retirement plans, a live policy question regulators have been debating.
Most Americans still see crypto as a poor fit for a retirement account. Some 77% call it risky, while 53% oppose employers offering it as an option in workplace plans at all.
The generational gap in crypto ownership
Crypto ownership isn’t even across age groups. Pew Research Center’s January 2026 survey of more than 8,500 adults found ownership at 26% among 18- to 29-year-olds, 28% among 30- to 49-year-olds, and just 10% among those 50 and older.
How account type changes what crypto costs you in taxes
Where you hold crypto changes what it costs you in taxes. A traditional IRA or 401(k) taxes every withdrawal as ordinary income, even gains that would qualify for a lower capital gains rate in a taxable account. A Roth account works another way. Qualified withdrawals are tax-free, so a volatile asset keeps its full upside. A taxable account has its own edge. You can harvest losses to offset gains, something an IRA doesn’t allow. Asset location depends on your tax bracket and timeline.
Most advisors who allow crypto cap exposure at 1% to 5% of a portfolio, using only money you won’t need for years.
A lot of people are making retirement decisions without knowing what their debt costs them, what their savings will pay them, or how much to trust the tools now offering to help. Replacing that guesswork starts with your own numbers, run against your own accounts. That tells you more than any survey average ever will.
Frequently Asked Questions
The National Institute on Retirement Security surveyed 1,203 Americans in late 2025 and found debt working against retirement savings for most people. Almost three in four called debt a personal problem, and a similar share said it’s keeping them from saving enough. Inflation and market volatility added to the pressure, cited by 73% and 62% of respondents.
Paying off high-interest debt eliminates a known cost, which works like a guaranteed return few markets can beat. A $10,000 balance at 22% APR costs about $2,200 a year in interest. Paying it down first is the higher-certainty move.
Under a standard withdrawal guideline, $100,000 in retirement savings produces around $4,000 in income during the first year, adjusted for inflation after that. In a recent survey, only 9% of respondents picked that answer; many guessed far higher, some as much as $25,000 a year, a rate that would exhaust the balance within a few years.
Portfolio yield is what a portfolio pays out on its own, dividends and interest, often 2% to 4%. A safe withdrawal rate is higher: it includes a calculated slice of principal, stress-tested against the worst 30-year stretches on record. Confusing the two is why people often expect more income than their savings can produce.
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