40% of Americans Risk Financial Struggles in Retirement for This Reason

It's no secret that millions of Americans are dependent on Social Security to pay their bills. But a new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security reveals that 40% of Americans only receive income from Social Security during their senior years. And that's troubling on many levels.

Social Security was never supposed to serve as a total income replacement source. Rather, it was meant to supplement pension income, or other sources of income, to help seniors keep up with their expenses once retired.

Social Security benefits will replace about 40% of pre-retirement income among average earners. But most seniors need a lot more income than that to maintain a decent lifestyle. The average recipient today collects around $18,000 in benefits. That's not a bad means of supplementing another income source, but it's hardly enough to support a comfortable existence.

Source Fool.com