Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Planning Never to Retire is Not a Retirement Plan

According to the 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey, 74 percent of the nation's workers plan to work for pay in retirement. But among the nation's retirees, only 23 percent are working. Although many boomers think they will work in retirement, it is likely that most will not.

A number of things conspire to prevent the elderly from working well into their sixties and seventies, not the least of which is deteriorating health. The life expectancy of people aged 65 in 2006 was 18.5 years, but only 12.2 of those years are free of activity-limiting disabilities, according to an analysis by the National Center for Health Statistics. For married couples, the shared years of health remaining at age 65 are even less. Caregiving responsibilities multiply. Those who think they will work in retirement need a Plan B.

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