Retirement is being rejected by a new breed of wealthy workers.
According to a survey conducted by Barclays, 60% of wealthy individusla say they plan to become a “Nevertiree.” This new group, as defined by Barclays, want to continue working for as long as they are able, shunning traditional retirement, starting businesses and taking on new projects in their later years.
The survey of 2,000 high-net-worth individuals indicated that this group of “Nevertiree” is expected to grow over the next several year with over 70% of respondents under the age of 45 saying that they will always be involved in some form of work.
Emerging markets such as Saudi Arabia (92%), United Arab Emirates (91%) and South Africa (89%) illustrated the biggest desire to continue working. The concept is also popular in developed economies with the United States (54%), and the United Kingdom 60%) showing a desire to carry on working.
Wealhty individuals in Switzerland (34%), Spain (44%) and Japan (46%) seem most interested in a conventional retirement.
Three-quarters of U.S. respondents plan to work part time after they have stopped working permanently, 7% more than the global average. Specifically, 32% plan to work between five and 20 hours per week in “retirement”, and 7% plan to work more than 20 hours per week.
“This represents a step change for wealthy people,” said Matt Brady, the head of wealth advisory, Americas for Barclays Wealth. “While previous generations looked to create their wealth early on in life with a view to enjoying it when they retired, this report reflects a different attitude, with people wanting to continue to challenge themselves well beyond the traditional retirement age. Indeed, many Nevertirees prefer to be actively engaged and challenged and are not bound by their age with regards to continuing their working life.”
One reason for this new attitude is that only 40% of wealthy individuals “completely agree” that they are “totally confident” in having enough money for retirement, with another 37% “slightly agreeing”.
Only 48% of U.S. high net worth individuals would completely classify themselves as financially secure.
Among the global wealthy who are already retired, only 51% agree they are completely confident in having enough money for their retirement.
“Unpredictability is a real concern for those in, and looking toward, retirement, and the steady rise of life expectancy, combined with inability to predict investment returns, can be daunting,” Brady said. “Even if most people plan to continue to work in some form, investing during the later years of life remains very important. For many, income from work will be reduced and investment income, if any, will have to be used to meet the shortfall, to act as a safety net and to enable wealth transfer to subsequent generations.”
