Contrasting Today's Comfort With Tomorrow's Penury

Amid the ups and downs of the economy, Americans tend to remain unworried about their current finances. A Gallup poll finds they’re less sanguine about retirement, though. While 74 percent of non-retirees said they now have enough money to live comfortably, 59 percent feel they’ll have enough to retire in such style. The gap is negligible among 18-29-year-olds (75 percent comfortable now, 73 percent confident about retirement). It’s wider among people for whom retirement isn’t a mere abstraction: 75 percent of 30-49-year-olds are comfortable now, and 54 percent expect to be fine then; 74 percent of non-retirees age 50 and up are fine now, and 55 percent expect to retire comfortably.