Surveying the retirement landscape and acknowledging that he’d promised his wife that he would give more time to their marriage and grandkids, he sheepishly said in a compromised tone, “I’m done, I think. Better yet, I’m done-ish.” We laughed as he’d coined a new word, but it’s not a new way of being for many of us.
People define retirement in different ways, but generally, the gist is that you’re no longer working.
For the current generation of retirees, that is largely the case. Among currently retired people, 71% say they’re not working in any capacity, according to CNBC’s August 2024 Your Money retirement survey. Among those who are working, 17% say they’re doing so by choice, with just 11% reporting working because they have to. But, this survey didn’t look at how many people are working part-time.
The next generation of retirement savers seems less eager to relax once they leave their 9-to-5. Just 11% of would-be retirees surveyed by CNBC say they don’t plan to work in any capacity after they retire. More than a third of respondents — 36% — say they’re not sure, while the majority, 53%, anticipate working, either because they’ll want to or to supplement their income. Researchers at Morningstar recently modeled retirement outcomes for American workers and found that 45% of U.S. households were likely to run out of money in retirement. But, only about 28% of households will fall short in retirement if retiring at 70, according to Morningstar’s model, compared with 45% if retiring at 65.
The fact is satisfaction in retirement has been steadily decreasing since at least 1998, according to findings from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That year, 61% of retirees surveyed by the institute for the University of Michigan’s longitudinal Health & Retirement Study, which has been ongoing for 30 years, reported feeling “very satisfied” with their choice; by 2022, the last year for which data is available, that cohort had fallen to 48%.
Finally, society needs us to stay in the workplace longer. In 2000, there were about 27 Americans above the age of 65 for every 100 Americans of prime working age (between the ages of 20 and 49). By 2020, this number had increased to 39. By 2040, it will have risen to 54. Because these changes are driven mostly by a decline in fertility, the U.S. workforce will also soon begin to grow more slowly. If immigration into the United States is reduced, as seems likely no matter who wins the election, this will only contribute to the aging problem.
Long story short, we need to reframe our relationship with retirement or possibly retire the word “retirement” because it carries so much baggage. If you’d like to explore this topic a little further, we have an upcoming Reframing Retirement online bootcamp Monday-Friday of next week. It’s an affordable, accessible way to connect with our MEA community for a short time each day in the comfort of your own home as you ponder whether you’re “done-ish.”
-Chip
P.S. Tomorrow at noon PT, I will be joined in an online fireside chat with my long-time friend Seth Godin, one of the world’s best known marketers and business philosophers, as we talk about his new book, This is Strategy: Make Better Plans. It’s a free event and you can register HERE.
