37% Retire Earlier than Planned

A substantial 37 percent of Americans retire before their planned retirement age, according to the Center for Retirement Research. The Center's researchers came to this conclusion after examining longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study for the years 1992 to 2012 to determine how many older Americans ended up retiring before their planned retirement age—one of the questions asked by the survey. The older the age at which people plan to retire, the more likely they are to retire before they planned...

Percent retiring earlier than planned
20% of those who planned to retire at age 61 or younger
26% of those who planned to retire at age 62
38% of those who planned to retire at ages 63 or 64
42% of those who planned to retire at age 65
55% of those who planned to retire at age 66 or older

What accounts for all these early retirements? Of the four factors considered by the researchers (health, employment, family, and financial), the most important is health. Absent health problems or a change in health status, the percentage who retire earlier than planned would drop from 37 to 32 percent, the researchers report. That's not much of a decline. In fact, the four factors considered by the researchers can explain only one-quarter of early retirements. What accounts for the rest? Perhaps "soft" factors, say the researchers, "like the lure of leisure time."

Source: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Retiring Earlier than Planned: What Matters Most?