The Baby Boomer Retirement Crunch is Starting
Everything we’ve said about our generation is true: we might not feel like it, but we are an “aging population.” And, many people age 65 and older are already struggling to live off the amount they have saved for retirement.
The oldest baby boomers have already turned 65, and the older population of the U.S. is beginning to swell. The age-65-and-older population grew 18 percent between 2000 and 2011 to 41.4 million senior citizens, according to a recent Administration on Aging report. And these numbers are expected to further balloon over the coming decade as baby boomers continue to reach traditional retirement age. Here’s what retirement looks like for the typical person age 65 or older in the U.S., reports US News and World Report.
Low incomes.
Most retirees have very modest incomes. The median income for people age 65 and older was $27,707 for males and $15,362 for females in 2011. The typical household headed by someone age 65 or older had a median income of $48,538. The median income increased by 2 percent between 2010 and 2011 after adjusting for inflation. Almost 3.6 million elderly people (8.7 percent) lived below the poverty level in 2011.
Reliance on Social Security.
The most common source of retirement income is Social Security, and 86 percent of people age 65 and older receive monthly payments. And Social Security is responsible for 90 percent or more of the income received by 36 percent of beneficiaries. Only about half (52 percent) of retirees receive income from their assets. Even fewer retirees receive monthly payments from private (27 percent) or government (15 percent) pensions. “The boomers will be the first generation to overwhelmingly not receive some sort of guaranteed benefits from employers,” says Ken Dychtwald, president of the consulting firm Age Wave and author of “A New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement, and Success.” “We now live in a 401(k) world where people are responsible for our own savings, and baby boomers have not done a very good job. It’s a generation that is going to struggle in old age in the absence of reliable anchors and support systems.”
Continuing to work.
A growing proportion of the older population is continuing to work during the traditional retirement years. Some 18.5 percent of Americans age 65 and older were in the labor force in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including 24 percent of men and 14 percent of women. Young retirees between ages 65 and 69 are the most likely to be working. “For a lot of people, they literally need to work. Work has also increasingly become connected with the sense of the meaning of life and the purpose of life,” says Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, director of the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College. “The same person might have reasons from each of those categories.”
Making it to Medicare.
The older population is much more likely to have health insurance coverage than younger counterparts. Almost all Americans (93 percent) age 65 and older were covered by Medicare in 2011. And 86 percent of retirees also have supplementary coverage that fills in some of the gaps and cost-sharing requirements of traditional Medicare.
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Category: Retirement
Having enough money is important in retirement, but finding new meaning is just as important. The research shows boomers have the time to find new meaning and purpose beyond their previous lives or careers.
Learn more by reading: Find YOUR Reason to Be Here: The Search for MEANING in midlife.
We viewed retirement as a time to re-evaluate our priorities. Our priority was to travel. How to do that on my husbands SS check ($1500 a month) was the trick since I can’t hold a traditional job while traveling and Mike had never been outside of the US.
So we sold everything, we now live in a new country every 6 months, we have no cell phone bill, no medical insurance premiums, no cable TV bill, no internet bills, nothing that sucks money away from living and exploring. We find places to rent for 6 months that include all utilities including internet access and we only have to pay for food out of pocket.
So what we strive to tell seniors who are afraid to retire is not to be afraid. Evaluate your wants and needs and then take steps to make those changes to get you the retirement that you want. We did, and we plan to be out and exploring and traveling (and submitting articles to BoomerCafe) for at least the next 10 years.
Yes, a job for me would be nice but it would have to be an exceptional company. One that would allow me to keep living life on the road, working, developing and blogging about travel. If I find such a company I’ll let you know.
If you want a retirement coach contact us, we’re here to help. We want others to enjoy their retirement as much as we are.