Americans' delayed retirement expectations, in 3 sad charts

[xchrom]

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/2/5862134/americans-delayed-retirement-expectations-in-3-sad-charts



Lots of Americans have the dream of saving up for a few decades and quitting work with plenty of time and money to retire in style. But a new report shows that in just 10 years, Americans' beliefs about when they would retire swung dramatically.

A new Census Bureau report about the US population over 65 finds that between 2000 and 2010, Americans' planned retirement ages shifted way upward.



As of 2000, 23 percent of Americans planned to retire at age 66 or later (or never). By 2010, it was 42 percent. Meanwhile, the share who planned to retire before 60 fell by more than half, from 22 to 9 percent.

Interestingly, this shift wasn't just due to the Great Recession. A tanking stock market did ruin some peoples' retirement savings during that time, but between 2000 and 2005, Americans already were inching away from retiring at age 65 or before. American employers' shift away from defined benefit pensions probably played some sort of a part here — as of 1983, defined-benefit plans were the majority of retirement plans in the US. By 2004, most were defined-contribution — that is, plans like 401(k)s to which people have to contribute their own money.

[SoCalDem]

1. Employment used to be like a conveyor..

Company-pensions provided the vehicle for older workers to leave as younger ones came onboard. It was civilized and could be be planned for/counted on.

When unions and decent company-owners went away/sold out, and people were left on their own, it became impossible to plan, so of course millions of people have no money when they need to retire..

This is not a mystery..and never was..

[yeoman6987]

2. A lot of people who say that they will work into their 70's

find out pretty quickly that getting up everyday to go to work becomes more and more difficult and end up quitting and getting their social security. I know some work until SEVENTY to collect a huge bonus in Social Security money. A lot of doom and gloom but I think people will retire when they want to like all the other times in history. For example, if you go down to Florida at the Villages, there are quite a lot of people in their late 50's and early 60's that retired from New Jersey (for some reason those are the ones that I have met most)....great folks that are loving The Villages. I want to end up there someday. I love the center square in town on Friday nights.....lots of dancing and drinking....it is almost like college again. lol. Retirement is how you make it. If you sell your home from a northern state and move to Florida, you can pay off your home and still have extra for living expenses and with SS, it really is doable.