Unretirement: The Number of Americans Planning to Retire at 67 is Plummeting

Two publications this week reinforce the new reality of health and financial insecurity: The Vanishing Middle America issue of Advertising Age (October 17, 2011 issue) and the Sun Life Financial U.S. Unretirement Index – Fall 2011 with the subtitle, “Americans’ trust in retirement reaches a tipping point.”

The chart shows the retirement coin’s two sides: since 2008, the proportion of people in the U.S. who expect to retire by 67 dropped from 52% down to 35%; and, those who believe they will be working full-time (I emphasize “full,” not “part,” time) grew from 19% to 29%. 61% of working Americans plan to delay retirement at least three years due to economic factors. This signals a decline in peoples’ confidence in their financial security in retirement along with their medical security and access to health care services they will need as they age. Confidence in Medicare benefits fell from 20% in 2008 to 8% in 2011 in Sun Life’s survey...

...In 2011, the Unretirement Index fell to the lowest level since the survey’s inception in 2008, when the Index measured 46: in 2011, the Unretirement Index fell to 36. Sun Life calculates that in the Recession Period of December 2007 to June 2009, household income fell by 3.2%. Between June 2009 and June 2009, household income fell a further 6.7% in this “unrecovery” period. It is no surprise, then, that most Americans (87%) believe they will need at least three years to rebuild the savings lost since the start of the recession in 2008...