Think you’ll work until you’re 70 or even longer? A new MetLife Mature Market Institute study of boomers born in 1946 found that more than half of them are retired despite earlier intentions to postpone retirement. The study, which looked at more than 1,000 boomers, has watched the number of fully retired boomers go from 19 percent in 2007 when participants were 61 years old to 52 percent in 2012 at 66 years old. The study also found that 86 percent of them are already collecting Social Security with nearly half (43 percent) admitting they started collecting earlier than expected.
Some of the individuals retired early due to health (one in six) and some retired early due to job loss (10 percent) but 54 percent retired earlier than they expected to because they had reached retirement age. So what’s all that mean for you? If your plan is to wait until age 70 or later (like the individuals in the study, recognize that you might not make it to your goal age. Plan instead for being able to retire at a younger age and then if you can continue working longer, you can reap a benefit rather than suffer a penalty.
Just over half of the boomers in the study said that they were on track to reach retirement savings goals but a very significant 34 percent said they were somewhat or significantly behind in their savings. Not sure when you’ll financially be able to retire? If you don’t already have one, talk to a financial planner to get a better idea on when you’ll be able to meet your retirement goals.
