Low Interest Rates Crimp Retirement Plans, Survey Finds Rising pessimism about the course of the economy, along with low interest rates and increasing health care costs, are squeezing Americans" retirement plans, a new survey finds. A third of the investors surveyed said low interest rates would cause them to delay retirement. And 45 percent of nonretirees and about a third of retirees said they feared that the low rates might result in them outliving their money in retirement, the survey from Wells Fargo and Gallup found. And 29 percent of nonretirees surveyed said that rising health care costs had reduced their ability to save for retirement, and about 12 percent said that was a factor in delaying their retirement. The findings are from the Wells Fargo-Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index, a survey of 1,018 randomly chosen investors that was conducted May 4-12. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for investors over all; four percentage points for nonretirees, and five percentage points for retirees. The study defined an investor as a head of household or a spouse in any household with total savings and investments of $10,000 or more. The sample was made up of 75 percent nonretired investors, and 25 percent retirees. More than half of investors said they felt they had "little control" or "no control" in their ability to build and maintain their retirement savings in the current environment. The results show the challenge that low rates are posing for retirement nest eggs, when core inflation is about 3 percent a year and safe investments like certificates of deposits are yielding less than 1 percent interest, said Karen Wimbish, director of retail retirement at Wells Fargo, in a prepared statement. "The volatility of the market over the past five years has really scared people away from it," she said. But relying on low-interest rate options means they are losing purchasing power. What impact are low interest rates having on your retirement plans?