Kate Ashford: Retirement could come sooner than you think — how to plan for it
American workers expect to retire at a median age of 65, according to a 2023 survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute
NEW YORK (AP) — American workers expect to retire at a median age of 65, according to a 2023 survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, or EBRI. But the actual median age for retirement is 62, the survey found.
That may not seem like a big gap, but if you retire three years earlier than planned, that’s three fewer years of savings and three more years of retirement to fund.
This could happen for all sorts of reasons: You (or your partner or your parents) could get sick or disabled, there could be changes at your company, or you could simply burn out on the job. Forty-six percent of retirees exit the workforce sooner than they had planned, according to the EBRI survey, and of those, 35% say they did so due to a hardship (like health issues or disability).
Liz Windisch, a certified financial planner in Denver, has two clients who were laid off in their early 60s and who both ended up retiring. “They looked for a couple of years and finally just gave up,” Windisch says. “It is more likely than not that you won’t get to work as long as you’re planning.”
