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The Working Retirement

Last update on: Feb 02 2017
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For a long time, the average retirement in the U.S. steadily declined. It started to rise again around 2000, and in recent years many people below retirement age said they planned to work after age 65. The number of people who said they planned to delay retirement rose after the 2000-2002 bear market and rose sharply after the 2008 financial crisis. Some people plan to work longer because they want to remain active and contribute. Others can’t afford to retire.

The trend to planning a later retirement reversed a bit, but not by much.

While the percentage of workers 60 and older who are postponing retirement fell in a survey released Wednesday by CareerBuilder, almost two-thirds of older workers still say they will put off retirement because they can’t afford it. One year ago, 72% of workers over 60 said they couldn’t afford to retire.

One in 10 workers surveyed said they don’t think they’ll ever be able to retire, and 16% said it’ll be at least seven years before they can stop working.

Two-thirds of respondents said they had to keep working due to financial restraints, and 58% said they needed to maintain health insurance and other benefits through their employers. Workers’ reasons for staying on the job weren’t all negative, though. Almost 40% said they would keep working because they enjoy their job, though, and 36% said they “enjoy where they work.” Over one-quarter are worried retirement will “just be boring,” and 14% said they enjoy feeling needed.

There are many good reasons to delay retirement or not retire. But you need a backup plan. Many workers report that they retired earlier than they expected to because of either health reasons or they lost a job and couldn’t find another satisfactory position.

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