80 Is The New 65
Posted On December 1, 2011
Wells Fargo’s 7th annual retirement survey, released this month, shows that an increasing number of Americans are planning to work beyond the traditional retirement age of 65. Three quarters of those surveyed, across all age groups, said they expected to continue to work past 65. Half of those expect to work out of necessity. 25% said they expected to retire at 80.
Baby Boomers are the most likely to feel compelled to work. Over half of Boomers expect to keep working into retirement because they have to. Another quarter expects to work past 65 because they want to. In contrast, among the younger generations, more feel they will work past 65 because of preference rather than necessity.
In general, Boomers in the survey expressed more anxiety about retirement than younger generations, and are counting on Social Security to provide substantial support. Younger generations are skeptical that Social Security will provide much and instead are most interested (86%) in personal advice and guidance in planning their own retirements.
In addition to the retirement funding issues, the extension of typical careers and working lives into the years beyond 70 and 80 will make the issues of the multigenerational workplace and marketplace even more challenging than they already are today.