According to new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans' retirement plans have significantly changed. The survey revealed that only 46% of respondents intend to work full-time beyond the age of 62, a notable decrease from the previous figure of 55%.

Yahoo Finance's Kerry Hannon delves into the survey's details, offering insights into the pros and cons of this shift in sentiment.

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This post was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

According to new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, there's been a big shift in how Americans envision their post working years.

And here with the details, we've got Yahoo Finance's Carrie Hannon.

Hey, Carrie, what do we know here?

Hey, Brad.

Um Yeah, this is significant.

Um And in the last five years, the number of Americans who say that they will continue working after age 62 has dropped from 55% to 46%.

So most Americans are saying I'm out of here at 62 for full time work.

And, you know, I think there are a couple of things behind that if you look, if you kind of dig below it, although the researchers didn't, didn't say this specifically, but coming out of the pandemic, I think people had this opportunity kind of uh shift to thinking about part time work because more remote work was available.

They started thinking, doing the soul searching.

I call it the inner MRI about what's really important to me.

What do I want to do with my life?

And I have opted to say, you know, they don't value work as part of that equation in the same way they once did.

And so I think that in addition, the uptick in wealth, right, the, the markets have been pretty good retirement counts for some people are quite robust.

So you got this, this urge to leave, right?

But this is why I personally think this is a terrible idea and a lot of the uh experts I talked to agree with me unless you absolutely can't continue working because of a, a physical issue or, or you can't get a job because of ageism.

Uh And that's very real.

Um But, you know, it's a bad idea because in a sense that, you know, most people are under saved for retirement, right, less than half of Americans think they have enough saved for retirement.

According to a recent report by Schroders that came out last week, um They have medical bills.

If you leave at 62 you still have to put your medical bills until 65 when Medicare kicks in.

And even then Medicare doesn't cover a lot of things people are mistaken there.

So, uh Fidelity has a number that say from uh a couple that retired at 60 or an individual at 65 retired last year might have 100 and $60,000 in medical expenses between now and the end of their life.

Now, this is significant.

So I think people don't factor in some of these things like inflation.

And then of course, I mean, longevity, we are living longer lives and if you have to finance three days, decades of living, I mean, come on.

That just makes me roll my eyes.

You have to have been a pretty super saber and able to do that and finally look at inflation.

Right.

Co costs still.

Yes.

There things are uh toning down a bit but they're still up and it's expensive.

So, so Brad, those are kind, that's sort of my take on this whole thing.

But again, it is a surprising, uh and significant shift.

We're living longer lives, even without Tony Stark's arc reactor implanted in all of us here.

Carry.

So, so, so what's behind this shift in people expecting to retire earlier?

Yeah, I think it is that idea of expectation.

I think this, this is this desire to take control of our lives and really, you know, embrace things that we weren't able to do during our working lives and, and it certainly has been a dream for people for many, many years.

I just think the financial realities today make it just a little more tricky for people.

And the fact that, you know, it has been difficult, you know, saving being under saved is something that, that is quite, you know, something people have to focus on.

So if you want to hit that number and you're young enough, get going, save hard, save fast, save long, you know,