Thanks to Baby Boomers, the notion of the frail retiree is being shattered. Today’s retirees are spending their new free time hiking, teaching, creating and doing the things they didn’t have time to do during their working years.
The average age for retirement is now 67—65 if you were born before 1959. The 65-and-over population will increase 50 percent from 2015 to 2030, which means a lot of you are probably beginning to think about how and when you’ll retire.
Though the Baby Boom generation is taking advantage of retirement in different ways than their parents, they also face a set of different issues.
Planning Your Retirement
You’ve likely seen those commercials on TV touting the benefits of saving for retirement. That’s because less and less people are putting money away for their future retirement. In fact, only four out of 10 Baby Boomers have enough money saved for retirement, and if you’ve already retired, only half of your peers have money saved.
Making the Most of Your Savings
There is a lot of financial advice for retirement to sift through. To help you make sense of it, here are a few helpful tips.
Be Aware of Your Savings Options
Automatically putting a portion of your earnings into savings—whether you’re still working or saving some extra funds you’re making while retired—may seem like a practical thing to do, but it can also give you a false sense of how much you really have saved.
Auto-savings rates are typically 3 to 6 percent of your annual pay. Financial planners, however, recommend putting away 10 to 15 percent of your earnings.
Wait it Out
Ready for retirement? While early retirement may seem tempting, experts suggest waiting it out if you’re in good health and can continue working. This is because the longer you wait to retire, the more you’ll receive from Social Security. For example, if you choose to retire at 62—the earliest age you can start collecting benefits—your benefits will be about 25 percent smaller than they would be if you waited until the full retirement age of 67. And if you wait until 70 to retire, your benefits will increase even more.
By planning ahead and being aware of your options you’ll be fully prepared to make the most of this new era. Find out more about how you can successfully prepare for retirement, and read inspiring stories from other retirees in our latest guide: Prepare for and Make the Most of Modern Retirement: Your Ultimate Guide.
