Your longer life expectancy not only presents challenges, but may be the opportunity to forge a second career that speaks to your passions.
Boomer Sustainability
Are you ready for a much longer lifetime?
Here are the facts -
1. Traditional retirement planning has been targeted to age 65. The Actual Retirement Age is between age 57 and 59. This is the age at which many individuals find that they are unable or unwilling to sustain their primary career. This may be due to layoff in an industry undergoing structural changes with fewer employment opportunities or for other reasons. It is not necessarily by choice.
2. The average person still has 25% - 30% of their total life expectancy ahead of them at age 57!
3. Only 16-18% of private employees are pension eligible.
4. Household savings excluding the house average around $25,000.
5. Full Social Security benefits are not available until age 70. Those taking benefits at age 66 will receive an average benefit of approximately $1000 per month.
6. If the home was bought or refinanced in 2002 or later, the value of the home may be less than the debt.
7. 25% of Boomers in their 50s and 60 are still contributing to older parents or adult children.
8. 58% of Boomers are divorced, single, or widowed.
9. 53% of the U.S. workforce is over 40.
According to a Fidelity Investments survey, 82 percent of near-retirement-aged couples they polled didn’t even agree on when to retire, whether to continue with part-time employment, or how to spend their new leisure hours.
No wonder retirement proves to be so stressful and harmful to health! Financial advisors cannot begin to develop a plan until such fundamental questions are resolved.