Americans as a whole aren't saving nearly enough for retirement. In fact, an alarming number of people have absolutely nothing put away for their golden years. That's according to new data from Northwestern Mutual's 2019 Planning & Progress Study, which found that 15% of Americans have no retirement savings at all. Younger generations who have had limited time to save aren't skewing the numbers either. For both Gen X-ers (defined here as ages 39 to 54) and baby boomers (defined as ages 55 to 73), 14% of survey respondents in each group say they have nothing saved for retirement. Just 17% of respondents say they have between $1 and $74,999 earmarked for retirement, which falls short of the $1 million experts typically recommend.

For many Americans, it comes down to a disconnect between realizing that they need to save more and actually taking steps to do so, Emily Holbrook, senior director of planning at Northwestern Mutual, tells CNBC Make It. Over the past 10 years that Northwestern Mutual has performed the survey, "people feel like their financial habits and security has improved," Holbrook says. However, despite this perception of growth, "we're still seeing major gaps and troubling signs" that Americans aren't following through on their good intentions. For 2019, only 10% of respondents are confident that they'll have enough put away for retirement, and on average, people say there's a 45% chance that they'll run out of money in retirement. However, 41% say that they haven't taken any action to address the issue. That needs to change, Holbrook says. "They need to become educated, they need to meet with a financial advisor, they need to discuss options and understand what it is they are going to do," she explains.