The Current State of Retirement: Pre-Retiree Expectations and Retiree Realities

The Current State of Retirement: Pre-Retiree Expectations and Retiree Realities is a research report that compares and contrasts the retirement outlook of age 50+ workers with the actual experiences of retirees. It describes how pre-retirees' ideas of retirement differ from the actual experiences of retirees. While many age 50+ workers expect to work beyond age 65 and/or work in retirement, those who are currently retired entered retirement at a median age of 62. Many retirees retired before they had planned to, often due to circumstances beyond their control.

Key findings include:

• Retirees indicate their employer offered little in the way of retirement transition assistance. Fewer than 10 percent say their most recent employer offered flexible work arrangements, retirement seminars, or financial counseling.
• Seventy-six percent of retirees wish that they would have saved more on a consistent basis. Fifty-three percent agree that they would have liked more information and advice from their employers on how to achieve retirement goals.
• Among the 60 percent who retired sooner than planned, two-thirds retired for employment-related reasons including organizational changes at their place of work, job loss, being unhappy with their job or career, or receiving a retirement incentive or buyout.

The report is based on 2015 surveys of more than 2,100 age 50+ workers and 2,000 retirees.