Retiring Earlier than Planned: What Matters Most?
The brief’s key findings are:
- More than a third of older workers retire earlier than planned: the question is why?
- This study looks at: 1) the impact of unexpected changes in health, employment, family, and finances on early retirement; and 2) the prevalence of these shocks.
- The findings suggest that:
- Health shocks play the largest role, mainly because they are widespread.
- Job loss without finding a new job, while not as prevalent, is also important.
- Family transitions have a modest impact, while financial shocks appear to have little effect.
- A key caveat is that all the shocks combined explain only about a quarter of earlier-than-planned retirements, so clearly other factors are also at play.