Contingencies Online - July/August 2012

Study Finds Boomers Continuing to Retire

DESPITE THE POPULAR BELIEF that baby boomers will continue to work well past the traditional retirement age of 65, those born in 1946 are retiring in droves, according to Transitioning into Retirement: The MetLife Study of Baby Boomers at 65. The study is a follow up to the 2008 MetLife Mature Market Institute study, Boomer Bookends: Insights into the Oldest and Youngest Boomers (released in 2009), which looked at the same segment of boomers at age 62 and includes 450 of the same interview subjects from the original study.

The study reports that 59 percent of the first boomers to turn 65 are at least partially retired— 45 percent are completely retired, and 14 percent are retired but working part-time. Of those still working, 37 percent say they’ll retire in the next year and on average plan to do so by the time they’re 68. Half ( 51 percent) of those who are retired say they retired earlier than they had expected. Of those who retired early, 4-in- 10 say they did so for health reasons. The majority (85 percent) of respondents consider themselves healthy, and almost all (96 percent) retirees say they like retirement at least somewhat. Seven-in- 10 ( 70 percent) like it a lot.

Almost two-thirds, 63 percent of respondents, are already collecting Social Security benefits and on average began doing so at the age of 63, defying the conventional wisdom that people would choose to wait to receive benefits until a later age in order to receive a higher pay-out. Among those in the survey, just over 60 percent are confident that the Social Security system will be able to provide adequate benefits for their lifetime.

THINKSTOCK

Regarding the attitude of these respondents, the data show that 43 percent of those polled are optimistic about the future. Of the 19 percent who are pessimistic about what’s ahead, 49 percent fault the government and 21 percent blame the economy. The 65-year-old boomers do not consider themselves old;

average, that the majority feel they’re
in good health and that 83 percent have
grandchildren. Overall, it’s a pretty con-
fident group of Americans.”
Additional findings:

■ ■ The average retirement age for the 1946 boomers is 59. 7 for men and 57. 2 for women.

■ ■ 24 percent have a living parent.

■ ■ 84 percent are parents; 83 percent are grandparents, up from 77 percent in 2008.

■ ■ Of those not retired, 61 percent plan to retire at the same age as they planned one year ago.

■ ■ 31 percent of 65-year-old boomers think they were at their sharpest mentally in their 40s; only 20 percent say they’re at their sharpest today.

■ ■ Homeownership increased significantly among the studied cohort since 2008, from 85 percent to 93 percent.

■ ■ 71 percent are married or in a domestic partnership; 12 percent are divorced or separated; 10 percent are widowed; and 7 percent are single.

on average they won’t consider themselves to be old until they’re age 79, a year older than reported in 2007.

“Many of the bomers weathered the recession well and have been able to stop working. Half of all boomers feel confident that they are on track or have already hit their retirement goals,” said Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. “We found that more are homeowners today than 2008, that the value of their homes decreased by only about 5. 2 percent on

Methodology

Transitioning into Retirement: The MetLife Study of Baby Boomers at 65 was conducted by Gfk Custom Research North America on behalf of the MetLife Mature Market Institute in November 2011. A total of 1,012 respondents born in 1946 were surveyed by random digit-dial telephone contact. The sample was among 942 respondents from the 2008 study who agreed to be recontacted. A total of 450 respondents completed the follow-up survey. The sample was supplemented by an additional sample of 562 respondents from Dunhill. Data were weighted by demographics to be representative of the total U.S. baby boomer population.