Retirement Date Is Often Out of Workers’ Control
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Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — In a perfect world, workers would get to retire exactly when they want to, usually at age 65 or later.
But with the world being far from perfect and circumstances often uncontrollable, the Employee Benefit Research Institute discovered that almost half of Americans retire sooner than they expect to.
The EBRI survey of 1,500 adults taken last year revealed that 35 percent of respondents left the workforce before the age of 60, with the number-one reason having to do with a health issue or disability, as was the case of all other people who retired prematurely.
Other reasons given for quitting a job before people were ready had to do with their company downsizing or the need to take care of someone at home.
Mostly, workers who want to be able to pick their own retirement date do so because they aren’t feeling financially secure and need to build their nest eggs.
That’s not to say everyone is forced to retire sooner than 65. Some can simply stop working because they are financially well-off, while others decide to try their hand at another line of work.
Still, officials at EBRI contend that it’s not a good strategy to believe that you can work as long as you want to. The suggestion to younger workers is to begin saving for retirement immediately.
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