Retirement Percentile by Age

[DrRoy]

I FIRE'd a month ago at 57+, and wondered where that age fell on a percentile basis. I found this article Average Retirement Ages in the U.S.: Probably Too Young | Money which gave the info that I was looking for. There appears to be an error for the age 50-54 group (it is shown twice).
There's probably a bit of rounding error as well. Considering presumed errors, I get the following figures for Americans:

Age Retired
50 1%
54 4%
60 17%
65 68%
69 80%
74 90%
79 94%
84 98%

 

[rayinpenn]

I wonder given healthcare's recent precipitous rise in cost if the future age won't shift to more at 65 going forward? I mean 7 years ago the healthcare picture was quite different.

 

[Scuba]

Agreed. Most of the people I know who could go ahead and RE in their late 50's or early 60's are waiting because of healthcare.

 

[braumeister]

Could it really be true that 1 out of 50 are still working after age 85?

 

[ponyboy]

Is healthcare really that expensive? If you early retire at age 52 for example...and you live solely off of your savings...wouldnt your income be near $0.00 minus any interest that money earned? Or for arguments sake lets say your reported income is $10,000. Isnt affordable care based off of income? Sure theres a huge deductible...but in terms of the monthly fee its not that bad is it?

I understand you cant predict the future...you may have bad health then have to cough up the $10k deductible...but in terms of having health care and the monthly fee associated with it...I dont believe its that much. Now if you're in poor health it could get costly...which will bring everyone back to the point of you cant predict the future of your health.

 

[exnavynuke]

Is healthcare really that expensive? If you early retire at age 52 for example...and you live solely off of your savings...wouldnt your income be near $0.00 minus any interest that money earned? Or for arguments sake lets say your reported income is $10,000. Isnt affordable care based off of income? Sure theres a huge deductible...but in terms of the monthly fee its not that bad is it?

I understand you cant predict the future...you may have bad health then have to cough up the $10k deductible...but in terms of having health care and the monthly fee associated with it...I dont believe its that much. Now if you're in poor health it could get costly...which will bring everyone back to the point of you cant predict the future of your health.

401k distributions, dividends, pensions, SS, retirement pay, alimony, capital gains, interest, rental/royalty income, etc all count toward income for the ACA subsidy.

Don't qualify for subsidies? The average premium for a single person at age 50 is over $5k/year, assuming they settle for "bronze" plans. Want silver or greater? Pony up a lot more money for those. Covering a family, at least double that number.

$5k/year may not sound like much for many of the people on these forums, but it's ~10% of the gross salary for an average household that is used to spending most, if not all, of their take-home pay.

 

[Amethyst]

It does seem like a high percentage, but I recall a court bailiff who informed everyone he was 84 (so maybe he kept working OMY!) and I've been waited on by retail clerks who were definitely in their 80's. Plus, some artisans just never quit, as long as their hands and eyes hold up.

Could it really be true that 1 out of 50 are still working after age 85?

 

[NW-Bound]

Somewhere in the early 60s, about 1/2 the workers stop.

This means the other 1/2 still chugs on. Poor people!

 

[exnavynuke]

Well, there's one category I plan on getting into the 1% during my lifetime

 

[Midpack]

Could it really be true that 1 out of 50 are still working after age 85?

Despite comments to the contrary at ER.org, some people love their work, I hope it's 1 in 50. I wish I'd been one of them, and I was until my 50's.

And some folks may not have anything saved, or lose their savings late in life.

Not a direct answer but FWIW.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...re-americans-break-record-for-working-past-65

When asked to describe their plans for retirement, 27 percent of Americans said they will “keep working as long as possible,” a 2015 Federal Reserve study found. Another 12 percent said they don’t plan to retire at all.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Could it really be true that 1 out of 50 are still working after age 85?

I apologize in advance, My father is 99 and still working. Apparently, he and some other guy are screwing up the numbers. I will have a talk with him.

 

[travelover]

MIL retired when she was 85. Granted, it was only part time, but she enjoyed it until she got a new supervisor.

 

[W2R]

I worry that some of those working in their 80's and 90's may be women who found out they didn't have enough income after their husbands died.

I think that interviewing elderly workers could be fascinating. I wonder how many are working for the money, how many are working because they love the job, and how many are working in the hopes of feeling younger and healthier.

 

[6miths]

I always strive to be in the top percentile or two... check! Don't really have the issues with healthcare here in the GWN. But certainly children aren't going to get nearly what they might have and they are likely not going to get it as soon!

 

[Sunset]

Is healthcare really that expensive? If you early retire at age 52 for example...and you live solely off of your savings...wouldnt your income be near $0.00 minus any interest that money earned? Or for arguments sake lets say your reported income is $10,000. Isnt affordable care based off of income? Sure theres a huge deductible...but in terms of the monthly fee its not that bad is it?

I understand you cant predict the future...you may have bad health then have to cough up the $10k deductible...but in terms of having health care and the monthly fee associated with it...I dont believe its that much. Now if you're in poor health it could get costly...which will bring everyone back to the point of you cant predict the future of your health.

I think the issue that may be delaying some folks now, is that affordable care could become less affordable if for example all subsidizes were removed.

While in the end things may work out OK, or not much different, the issue for someone wanting to retire is that it could become very different, and very expensive for healthcare. Most folks get 1 shot at retiring, so this uncertainty can easily cause delays.

 

[2017ish]

Is healthcare really that expensive? If you early retire at age 52 for example...and you live solely off of your savings...wouldnt your income be near $0.00 minus any interest that money earned? Or for arguments sake lets say your reported income is $10,000. Isnt affordable care based off of income? Sure theres a huge deductible...but in terms of the monthly fee its not that bad is it?

...

Not mentioned by anyone yet is the possibility of health insurance not being available at any price in some locations. We are healthy and have no ongoing medical issues. Could handle baseline healthcare, even up to and including most surgeries and many cancer diagnoses/treatments, without the insurance--but I'd be mighty uncomfortable with no insurance whatsoever; ICUs are not cheap.

Thus, our first six months in retirement will involve slightly more than $2000 monthly premiums for less-than-good health insurance; that would be considered "expensive" by most people. Once 2018 dust clears, we hope to move off of COBRA--but there is a reason we arranged our affairs to have that backstop available for 18 months. Odds are good that the COBRA plan will be available for both of us--while things are looking bleak for individual insurance products in our geographic location.

As for income being near zero, that may be true for some, but most of our assets are in tax deferred accounts and we need to do some serious conversions; subsidies aren't going to happen even if we were willing to accept the physicians/hospitals available under the exchange plan. (DW's group, for example, won't take that plan, and the same is true for a number of other practices that she would prefer to employ if needed.)

 

[Walt34]

Well, there's one category I plan on getting into the 1% during my lifetime

I almost made it by retiring at 52.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Agreed. Most of the people I know who could go ahead and RE in their late 50's or early 60's are waiting because of healthcare.

Exactly.

Because pensions were so prevalent, 30 or 40 years ago, the checklist was probably something like this.

Are the kids gone ?
Is the house paid off ?
Do we have a newer car ?

That was about it.

 

[2017ish]

Exactly.

Because pensions were so prevalent, 30 or 40 years ago, the checklist was probably something like this.

Are the kids gone ?
Is the house paid off ?
Do we have a newer car ?

That was about it.

I suspect that we tend to overestimate how prevalent and how generous they were. As to prevalence,

From 1980 through 2008, the proportion of private wage and salary workers participating in DB pension plans fell from 38 percent to 20 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008; Department of Labor 2002).

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v69n3/v69n3p1.html (A pretty good overview of the hows/whys of the trend in USA, with heavy references to the UK)

Another source takes us back earlier in time:

From 1940 to 1960, the number of people covered by private pensions increased from 3.7 million to 19 million, or to nearly 30 percent of the labor force, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, or EBRI, and by 1975, 103,346 plans covered 40 million people.

The Rise and Fall of Employer-Sponsored Pension Plans – Workforce Magazine (Note that another post at this site states 43% coverage by "some type of plan" in 1970 and 1990, which conflicts with the SSA.... See The History of Retirement Benefits – Workforce Magazine )

 

[rayinpenn]

Is healthcare really that expensive? If you early retire at age 52 for example...and you live solely off of your savings...wouldnt your income be near $0.00 minus any interest that money earned? Or for arguments sake lets say your reported income is $10,000. Isnt affordable care based off of income? Sure theres a huge deductible...but in terms of the monthly fee its not that bad is it?

I understand you cant predict the future...you may have bad health then have to cough up the $10k deductible...but in terms of having health care and the monthly fee associated with it...I dont believe its that much. Now if you're in poor health it could get costly...which will bring everyone back to the point of you cant predict the future of your health.

1. Soc sec is income
2. Interest on your savings account is income
3. A pension is income
4. Dividends are income

So if you modified adjusted gross income MAGI is greater then about 60k no subsidy for you. The unsubsidized premiums and deductibles are outrageous...