Retirement Funds Spiking On Market Gains, Retirement Might Too

Wall Street’s 2013 resurgence has lifted the average value of workers’ 401(k)s, and it’s likely to mean that more retirement-age workers will begin to leave the work force. Fidelity Investments reported its average retirement account reached $89,300 at the end of last year, almost double the balance in the bleakest moments of the recession. Vanguard reported that the average nominal account balance for its 401(k) plans reached $101,650 at the end of 2013, the highest recorded since it began tracking the figure in 1999. Buoyed retirement funds and baby boomers leaving the work force could be a major contributor – along with the long-term unemployed giving up job hunting – to the U.S. work force’s shrinking participation rate, which is sitting at a four-decade low.