Visions of Aging and “Retirement”1

What is retirement? Across generations, workers are looking forward to an active phase in life that includes continued work and time for leisure activities including travel, spending more time with family and friends, pursuing hobbies, and volunteer work. Many envision a flexible transition into retirement that differs from prior generations when retirement was marked by an abrupt stop to work. Workers have positive visions of retirement, albeit with legitimate concerns related to financial security and declining health.

Many Plan on Both Long Lives and Long Retirements. Workers are planning to live to age 90 (median). Almost one in five Millennials (17 percent) are planning to live to age 100 or older, compared with Generation X (11 percent) and Baby Boomers (9 percent). An implication for increased longevity is potentially more time spent in retirement. The survey compared workers’ planned life expectancy with their expected retirement age and found that Millennial workers plan to spend 25 years in retirement (median), a finding that is somewhat higher than Generation X (22 years median) and Baby Boomers (20 years median).

How Old Is “Old”? It Depends on the Person. Workers consider a person to be “old” at age 70 (median), a finding that increases with workers’ age. Of those who provided a specific age, Millennials consider a person to be old at age 65 (median), Generation X consider a person old at age 70 (median) and Baby Boomers consider it to be at age 75 (median). More often, workers say that “old” depends on the person (51 percent), including 43 percent of Millennials, 52 percent of Generation X, and 61 percent of Baby Boomers.

At What Age Is a Person “Too Old” to Work? More than half of workers (59 percent) say it depends on the person. Across generations, Baby Boomers are most likely to say it depends on the person (70 percent), followed by Generation X (60 percent) and Millennials (51 percent). Among those who provided a specific age, workers say age 75 (median) is “too old” to work. Millennials consider a person to be “too old” to work at age 70 (median), while Baby Boomers and Generation X both say age 75 (median).

Seventy-Two Percent Are Looking Forward to Retirement, including 30 percent who are “very much” and 42 percent who are “somewhat” looking forward to it. Baby Boomers (81 percent) are more likely than Generation X (70 percent) and Millennials (68 percent) to be looking forward to retirement.

Most Cite Positive Word Associations With “Retirement.” Eighty-six percent of workers cite positive word associations with “retirement” compared with only 37 percent who cite negative words. “Freedom” (55 percent), “enjoyment” (53 percent), and “stress-free” (43 percent) are the most often-cited positive words, while “financial insecurity” (18 percent), “health decline” (18 percent), and “boredom” (11 percent) are the most often-cited negative words.