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Retirement Planning > Retirement Investing

Retirement age not getting any closer

By Brian Anderson

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The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial Inc. released the latest edition of its “Unretirement” Index on Oct. 22, revealing some interesting – and of course (these days) scary – findings.

For instance, 65% of American workers will delay their retirement by at least one year – an 11% increase since the end of 2008. The index also indicated that 27% of Americans now believe they will need to work at least five years longer than expected because of the current economic environment.

Looks like there will be plenty of available tee times on the golf courses of Florida and Arizona for the foreseeable future.

More people are planning on working past 67, which may soon lose its short-lived status as the “traditional” retirement age to 70, which looks to be the “new 65.” Of those surveyed, 55% say they will work full- or part-time at 67, and another new high of 28% across all age groups are planning to work full-time past 67.

The silver lining here is that we’ve got plenty of opportunities to help people do a much better job of planning and saving for retirement – even if it is five years later than they originally hoped.

Less than one in four working Americans are very confident they will be able to live the kind of life they want in retirement – a compelling indicator that Americans must re-examine their savings strategies if they are to attain a sound financial future.

“Unfortunately, Sun Life’s findings released [Oct. 22] paint a troubling picture for the millions of American workers planning for retirement,” says Cathy Weatherford, president and CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI). “Not only has confidence significantly eroded in their own ability to fund their retirement, but Americans have grown increasingly pessimistic about the state of Social Security. With more than 40% of workers lacking confidence they will receive Social Security benefits when they retire, it is imperative that Americans revisit and revise their retirement savings strategies.”

Sun Life defines Unretirement as working at least 20 hours per week after the age when one is eligible to receive Social Security benefits. Sun Life created this Index to learn more about the reasons why Americans are choosing to “unretire,” or continue to work full- or part-time after the age of traditional retirement. For the complete Unretirement Index results, visit www.unretirementindex.com.

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