The clock is ticking for even the youngest baby boomers to ensure that they have enough money to pay for their care needs in retirement, and yet a new study adds to a growing body of research that many members of this generation will not be prepared financially.

Seventy-nine percent of middle-income baby boomers surveyed in October by independent research firm The Blackstone Group on behalf of the Bankers Life Center for a Secure Retirement said they have no savings put aside specifically to cover their care in retirement. Of those who do have money put aside, only 4% have more than $100,000 saved.

Baby boomers were aged 53 to 72 at the time of the survey, which defined “middle income” as households with annual incomes of $30,000 to $100,000 and less than $1 million in investable assets. The report resulting from the survey, titled “A Growing Urgency: Retirement Care Realities for Middle-Income Boomers,” was released Wednesday.

The oldest among those surveyed already are in the age range that 45% of respondents said was typical for entrance into assisted living, with respondents saying they believed that people typically need assisted living between the ages of 71 and 80; 37% said they thought assisted living typically was needed between the ages of 81 and 90.

Forty-five percent of respondents said they expect to need care at some point in retirement (compared with a 2017 estimate by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cited in the report that 69% of baby boomers will need some type of retirement care services during their lifetimes), but assisted living isn’t necessarily where they want to receive it.

Continue reading on McKnight's Senior Living.