You don’t have to be an expert pollster or retirement planning professional to know that American workers are delaying retirement for a variety of reasons. It’s also not too surprising to learn that a larger group of workers plan to not retire at all, as Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies recently revealed in a new poll.
However, what made me do a double take is that Transamerica officials view employees’ non-retiring retirement strategy as a bad thing.
According to the center’s survey, 39% of respondents plan to retire after age 70 or not at all, and more than half (54%) plan to work in retirement.
To each his own, I say, but Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, disagrees.
“With all of life’s uncertainties, planning not to retire is simply not a viable retirement strategy,” she says. “Planning to work past age 65 is an important opportunity to continue earning income, save more, and help to alleviate a retirement savings shortfall; however, it’s important that workers be proactive in setting a retirement savings goal, saving and investing for retirement, and having a backup plan if they are forced to retire sooner than expected.”
Of course, it’s important to have a safety net in any financial situation. But I think it's unfair to say that an employee who decides, “You know what? I’m just not going to retire.” is making a poor choice.
What do you think? Are there negative consequences for employees who opt to keep working indefinitely rather than retire? Share your thoughts in the comments.
