One-third of U.S. voters have no retirement savings, and only 18 percent are “very confident” they will have enough money for their retired years. Four out of five are looking to the federal government to help sort this out and help people properly save for retirement. America’s retirement crisis is no secret, but it’s also no cause for panic — as long as we prioritize coming together to find solutions.

That was my takeaway from the recent Retirement Summit “Redefining Retirement: It’s All of our Work,” co-hosted by BlackRock and Bipartisan Policy Center. Hearing from business leaders, union leaders, and thought leaders trying to address the retirement crisis, build support for solutions, and put fears to rest made me optimistic we can fix this.

Public employees — my fellow firefighters, police officers, nurses, teachers, and others — rely on their public pensions for retirement security. In recent years, the investments of some pensions have been threatened by interference from politicians getting in the way of financial returns by either encouraging or discouraging investments that align with their views.

What they want depends on their politics, but when their directions steer pension investments away from simple fiduciary principles, they’re part of the retirement problem, rather than the solution. This puts them in direct conflict with the pensions’ responsibility to simply make sound investments that ensure secure retirements for the beneficiaries.

If pension funds are making investments based on non-financial factors, they’re not doing their job. And often, when they’re not doing something for purely financial reasons, it’s because politicians are interfering. That political meddling can be surprisingly expensive for taxpayers, current and future retirees, and state economies.

When we are dealing with a retirement crisis like this, we should not let politics get in the way of secure retirements and sound investments. Especially because that’s not the only problem surrounding retirement.

Social Security has been a topic of conversation on both sides of the aisle for years now. Though the solvency date continues to get pushed back, federal lawmakers should ensure true solvency for Social Security, which is the critical foundation of many Americans’ retirement. To delay finding a solution just kicks it down the road and makes it worse.

As a firefighter with more than 30 years of service, I am a firm believer in defined benefit (DB) retirement plans and supplementing Social Security through pensions. Unfortunately, a recent trend has led to these types of pensions being typically reserved for public servants and government employees. As of March 2023, only 15 percent of private industry workers had access to a DB plan. I believe this should change as we work to bolster Americans retirement futures.

Sean McGarvey, the President of the North America’s Building Trade Unions, and Ed Kelly, the General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters emphasized how in careers like theirs, the physical tolls of the job can mean entering into early retirement making financial stability and secure retirement savings all the more important to cover living and potential medical costs.

We know there’s a retirement crisis. We know it’s a big, difficult problem to solve. But I’m confident we can fix this if we all come together. To quote Sean McGarvey, “...at the end of the day, we want a long, happy, healthy retirement for everybody that works for a living in this country.” With that goal in mind, let’s all get to work.

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Tim Hill is a retired Phoenix firefighter, president of the Alliance for Prosperity and a Secure Retirement and a former director of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Pension Resources Department.