Many Americans will be putting off retirement because of the economy, but many of the people who said they would delay retirement said they enjoy working anyway, according to a survey from
"The real issue here is that the word retirement no longer means not working," said Casey Sylla, president of Allstate Financial.
Among Baby Boomers, 29% said they planned on delaying retirement for economic reasons, but among Generation Xers, who range in age from 24 to 37, 38% said the economy will likely delay their retirements. On average, the Boomers projected that they would end up working an additional 5.5 years, where the Gen-Xers estimated an average 6.2 years.
Among African-Americans, 35% said they might have to postpone retirement, while 27% and 29% of Caucasians and Hispanics, respectively, said the same.
Despite these figures, it seems that Americans perceive retirement age as getting younger. Although many retirement benefits do not begin until age 65, Baby Boomers expected to retire at age 61.9 on average and Gen-Xers expected to retire at age 58.8. Also, African-Americans, who were more likely to expect to work into retirement, planned to retire at 58.6 on average, with Hispanics and Caucasians retiring at 60.1 and 61.9, respectively.
