Longevity and the New Journey of Retirement was recently released by the consulting firm Age Wave and the financial services firm Edward Jones. The report covers:
"... how the journey of retirement unfolds, the patterns of people's experience in retirement, and the keys to thriving along the way."
The report is quite comprehensive and covers a lot of ground in its 43 pages. And the entire report is well worth reading if you're interested in or thinking about retirement.
But we're most interested in work in retirement, so we'll focus on that.
As the report chart below shows (click to enlarge), 59% of retirees and pre-retirees (aged 45+) surveyed said they plan to work during their retirement years.
As we've pointed out, the highest self-employment rates are for those aged 60 and older. There are many reasons for this.
Older workers tend to want more work flexibility than younger ones. They also often have developed the skills and networks that make flexible self-employment viable. And age discrimination means self-employment may be their only choice.
Given the size of the baby boom generation, this means a growing number of new independent workers as this large cohort continues to retire.
Interestingly enough, we dug through our archives and found a 2011 Age Wave report called Retirement 3.0. Key quote from that study:
"A productive, purposeful and challenging new chapter in life - blending work and leisure - with opportunities for personal reinvention and continued social engagement."
So this trend has been in place for some time. And yes, we've been following this trend for too long.
See our Baby Boomer section for more on aging boomers and retirement.
