Most workers would save nothing without a 401(k): Fidelity

Without 401(k) plans, more than half of workplace savings plan participants said that they wouldn’t be saving for retirement, according to a Fidelity Investments survey of 1,000 current and former plan participants.

And nearly one in five workers enrolled in a workplace plan reported that they have no retirement savings at all outside their 401(k).

The challenge of personal restraint echoed throughout the survey’s findings.

For example, 23% of working investors reported having taken out a loan from their 401(k), which triggers a costly penalty. Of those, many said that it was for an unforeseen emergency, though just 29% of them said they wouldn’t do it again.

A quarter of working respondents reported that they had decreased their workplace contribution percentage, with nearly half saying that they already regretted or expected to regret such a decision.

More than half of working respondents said that they would contribute more if they could afford it.

More than half of the working respondents reported having increased their contribution rate in the past five years due to the incentive of employer matching dollars or having extra money available.

Not all respondents said that they are willing to rely solely on their workplace plan for their retirement, however. Some working respondents are supplementing retirement savings with an individual retirement account (37%), are in employer-sponsored pension plans (33%), have savings in bank accounts (28%) and have investments in stocks or bonds (28%).

With retirement approaching, employees 55 and older are the most active users of IRAs at 44%.

The study “provides an interesting snapshot of the actions of workplace plan participants in an uncertain economic climate,” said James M. MacDonald, Fidelity’s president of workplace investing.