A startling amount of U.S. households are at risk of being financially unprepared for retirement. This brief examines whether households have a good sense of their own retirement preparedness – do their expectations match the reality they face? That is, do households at risk know they are at risk? Understanding households’ self-assessed retirement preparedness is important because misperceptions can distort saving behaviors. Households that are not worried enough about their retirement income may not save enough even if they have the opportunity; households that are too worried may unnecessarily sacrifice their pre-retirement standard of living.