5 Common Reasons People Retire Early – DailyFinance

I left my corporate job at age 58, couldn’t put up with face to face lies anymore.

Took a job at a benefits consulting firm and, now spend all day reviewing and analyzing (and providing guidance to employers) concerning the lies that are the sum and substance of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

From the Employee Benefits Research Institute 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey.

The difference between workers’ expected age of retirement and retirees’ actual age of retirement suggests that a considerable gap exists between workers’ expectations and retirees’ actual experience. Consider that just 9 percent of workers say they plan to retire before age 60, compared with 37 percent of retirees who report they retired that early, and that 14 percent of workers plan to retire at ages 60−64, while nearly a third (32 percent) of retirees retired at these ages.

On the other hand, 26 percent of workers say they plan to wait at least until age 70 to retire (compared with 6 percent of retirees who actually did so), and 7 percent of workers indicate they will never retire. Workers who are not confident about their financial security in retirement plan to retire later, on average, than those who express confidence.

One reason for this gap between workers’ expectations and retirees’ experiences of retirement age is that many Americans find themselves retiring unexpectedly. The RCS has consistently found that a large percentage of retirees leave the work force earlier than planned (47 percent in 2013) (Figure 36), and many retirees who retired earlier than planned cite negative reasons for doing so, including health problems or disabilities (55 percent), changes at their companies, such as downsizing or closure (20 percent), or having to care for spouses or other family members (23 percent).

Others say changes in the skills required for their jobs (9 percent) or other work-related reasons (20 percent) played a role. Some retirees do mention positive reasons for retiring early, such as being able to afford an earlier retirement (32 percent) or wanting to do something else (19 percent), but just 7 percent offer only positive reasons.

The golden age of retirement is past – as is our opportunity to painlessly adjust Social Security and Medicare. Dick, you remember, we served on an ABC committee in the 1990’s reviewing Bill Clinton’s blue ribbon panel proposals… Unfortunately, Monica’s blue dress got in the way. Hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago!!!

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well Dick, I think people retire at different ages and of course for different reasons.I never bought into the” retire at 65″ thing. I am afraid that retirement has become an outdated vestige of a by gone time. White picket fences, single head of household (males) and Hallmark greeting cards if you catch my drift.

Looked at more objectively and from a business perspective (in the aggregate) its about removing from the shelf older inventory and replacing same with newer , more malleable (and usually cheaper) stock. But don’t look for retirement to disappear(completely) from our every day conversations as there are just to many people making money off the retirement “industry”.

In my case is was about aging parents, a loss of excitement and fun at work and perhaps more importantly having enough time in, so I could get my pension and take my benefits with me. I am sure I am going to need those benefits some day, but since I retired( 7 years now) I have only been to the doctor once . I guess I am lucky but I am also mindful of how fleeting one’s health is. Here today gone tomorrow .

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