NEW YORK, July 15, 2026, 11:08 EDT
U.S. workers are falling behind on retirement savings, and their target nest egg is shrinking. According to a Schroders plc LON:SDR survey, 27% said they’ve cut plan contributions and the same number have borrowed from their workplace plan. Those who knew their breakdown said cash makes up 26% of retirement assets, close to the 27% in equities. The take for investors: asset growth is slowing, not that participants have raised their savings goals.
Survey participants put their retirement goal at $1.2 million, but 51% said they’ll fall short, expecting to enter retirement with under $500,000. Another 24% see themselves finishing with less than $250,000. Compared to the survey’s $1.2 million target, that’s a potential gap of at least $700,000 or $950,000 for those groups. Just 30% think they’ll hit $1 million.
The gap got bigger even though the target dropped about $80,000, or 6%, from the $1.28 million seen in 2025. More people—up three percentage points—now expect to need less than $500,000. Plan leakage, with money leaving retirement accounts via contribution cuts and loans, sped up in the wrong direction. The target dropped. The leak got worse.
| Retirement outlook | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Change from 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comfortable-retirement target reported | $1.20 million | $1.28 million | $1.20 million | Down about $80,000 |
| Those expecting under $500,000 | 46% | 48% | 51% | Up 3 points |
| Those expecting under $250,000 | 23% | 26% | 24% | Down 2 points |
| Expect to hit $1 million or more | 29% | 30% | 30% | No change |
Data from Schroders’ 2024, 2025, and 2026 U.S. Retirement Surveys.
The drop in savings behavior stands out more than the savings targets. For 2025, 19% of respondents lowered their contributions and 17% took out a loan from their plan. This year, both numbers hit 27%. Using the surveys’ rounded numbers, about 19% of participants in 2026 had cut contributions over the prior two years, up from around 12% for 2025. “Saving for retirement is often the first thing that gets deprioritized,” said Deb Boyden, Schroders’ head of U.S. defined contribution. schroders.com
| Account behavior and allocation | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Change from 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share cutting contributions | Not reported | 19% | 27% | +8 points |
| Estimated two-year cut rate | Not reported | 11.6% | 18.9% | +7.3 points |
| Share borrowing from plan | Not reported | 17% | 27% | +10 points |
| Equity slice | 29% | 31% | 27% | -4 points |
| Cash slice | 28% | 23% | 26% | +3 points |
| Cash/equity ratio | 0.97 | 0.74 | 0.96 | +0.22 |
*Based on rounded survey numbers. Only includes respondents who were aware of their retirement asset allocations.
Allocation is adding to the pressure. Investors pulled back on stocks and built up cash, pushing the cash-to-equity ratio up about 30% from 2025 and putting it near its 2024 mark. That move can help shield balances in a downturn, but workers with longer timeframes get less from compounding. Over half the people in cash said they were worried about losing too much in a falling market.
Retirement providers and asset managers are seeing mixed trends. Lower contributions and more plan loans hurt assets under management. But there could be more appetite for managed allocations, financial wellness tools, emergency savings help, and downside-protected or income products. About 58% of people asked for more guidance from their employers, 74% said the workplace plan was their top retirement asset, and 33% said they owe more on credit cards than they have saved for retirement. Schroders said it had $1.108 trillion in assets under management at year-end 2025.
Worry over money in retirement goes beyond a single poll. Allianz Life, part of Allianz SE (ETR:ALV), said in April that 67% of Americans now fear outliving their savings more than dying, a jump of 10 percentage points from 2022. More than a third reported pulling money from investments after big drops in the market. Kelly LaVigne, vice president of consumer insights at Allianz Life, said savers should focus on “a reliable income stream that can last their lifetime,” not just on how much is in their account. Allianz Life
Corebridge Financial, Inc. NYSE:CRBG said insurers and retirement-income firms may have an opening. Just 28% of pre-retirees and retirees in a company survey were comfortable taking money from savings. When asked to pick, 47% wanted a guaranteed $60,000 a year for life, while 41% went for a $1 million lump sum. Terri Fiedler, Corebridge Retirement Services president, said turning savings into income—decumulation—could make people feel safer.
But the commercial potential isn’t wide open. The surveys track what people say they expect instead of actual account flows, and they don’t follow the same households year after year. The 2024 study had 780 current plan participants, 2025’s had 602, and the latest release just listed a total of 1,500 investors without breaking out the workplace-plan group. Keeping cash can make sense for workers close to retirement, and just because people feel anxious doesn’t mean they’ll buy annuities or managed products.
The next challenge for the retirement sector isn’t getting workers to set bigger targets. The test is keeping payroll deductions steady, pulling back on loans, and making sure savers move cash into portfolios they know and will stick with.
