Many workers may well be in denial about how long they can actually work. The survey found workers generally plan to retire around age 65. “The sobering reality is that 39 percent of retirees globally retired sooner than planned,” according to the report. “Of those, 30 percent stopped working earlier than they had planned for reasons of ill health, and 26 percent due to unemployment/job loss.”
And those robots? The survey asked about “aging friendly modifications or devices” people envisioned having in their homes. Thirty-five percent of workers in India, 34 percent in Turkey and 18 percent in the U.S. figured aging could include video monitoring devices. Then there are the robots, which 20 percent of Chinese workers see coming in retirement, compared with 6 percent of American workers.
The report is intended as a call to action, Collinson said. Recommendations include working financial literacy into educational curricula, promoting a more positive view of aging and allowing universal access to retirement savings arrangements.
With the traditional “social contract” among government, employers and individuals crumbling, “the sooner we roll up our sleeves and get to work, the sooner we will be able to identify and implement solutions,” she said. Whether that’s in public-private partnerships or implementing more findings from the field of behavioral finance, “inaction is really the enemy.”
Here’s the quiz:
1. Supposed you had $100 in a savngs account and the interest rate was 2 percent per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?
a. More than $102
b. Exactly $102
c. Less than $102
d. Do not know