The Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel has come up with an incredibly good article about the post recession strategies of those looking to retire.

The fast synopsis of the article is that seniors in South Florida are feeling very stung by the recession, and have concerns as well over the long term viability of Social Security.

South Florida’s retiring population is “cautiously optimistic”

Credit card debt is decreasing, and more money as a percentage is being put towards saving and investment than in servicing existing debt.

There is an enormous gap between what seniors planned to retire on, and what they have to retire on.

Here’s an excellent and telling excerpt.

… But many of those surveyed have some heavy lifting to do: The fall report found those surveyed have only $182,000 stashed away for retirement, but their goal on average is to acquire $758,400.
That’s because for years during and after the Great Recession, many South Floridians focused first on paying down their substantial debt, said economics professor +Jorge Salazar-Carrillo, who directs the Center of Economic Research at Florida International University.
“They have already reduced debt levels tremendously,” he said…

Our “gut feel” is that credit card debt is largely increasing, but other forms of debt are still routinely presented to our debt collection attorneys in Miami.   We have gone a long way in our recovery to stem the flow of the most expensive debt, credit cards, but on the whole, we continue to struggle paying for secured, and at times over-leveraged debt.