Regular readers know we cover retirement and the financial lives of baby boomers a lot here at Small Business Labs.
The reason is older Americans have the highest rate of self-employment of any age group. So if more people retire later and work longer than in the past, the more self-employed there will be.
Transamerica's Retirement Security Amid COVID-19: The Outlook of Three Generations study covers a wide range of topics and is loaded with interesting data.
But one finding, in particular, jumped out at us.
As the chart below shows (click to enlarge), 68% of baby boomers are either already past age 65 and still working or plan on working past the age of 65. Only 14% plan to retire prior to age 65.
We've reviewed a lot of retirement studies over the years and this is the largest percentage saying they are going to work past 65 by far. It's also the lowest share saying they are going to retire prior to age 65.
It's likely COVID-19 is influencing these numbers. It has even the most financially well prepared baby boomers wondering if they should keep working instead of retiring.
But this finding confirms the longer-term trend towards working longer that started in the 1990s.
And it strongly suggests the number of older independent workers will continue to grow.
