How Baby Boomers are Retiring

Data on the first wave of boomer retirees.

One of the benefits of getting older is that your friends start to retire. My good friend Georgia left the State Department at the end of 2011 after more than 38 years of federal service. She worked for portion of time as a reemployed annuitant, but she’s been fully retired for six months. Georgia keeps busy doing all of the things that she didn’t have time for during her years of long hours of federal service -- taking power walks in the park (with me!), working out at the gym, getting a beach house, cleaning closets, and spending time with her 80-year-old mother and 102-year-old grandmother.

I asked what the best thing about retirement is so far and she said it’s not having to drink her coffee in a cup with a lid. At first I didn’t know what she meant. Then I realized she always took her coffee to go as she rushed out the door in the morning.

Georgia is one of many people in government -- and across the American economy -- who have made the decision to move into retirement. And now we’re beginning to get more information about exactly how baby boomers in particular are faring in their golden years. The MetLife Mature Market Institute conducts numerous studies on the large population of boomers who are retiring. Its latest report, “The Oldest Boomers: Healthy, Retiring Rapidly and Collecting Social Security,” released in May, takes a close look at the first wave of boomer retirees -- those born in 1946. It provides a wealth of statistical data about this bellwether group.

Let’s look at some of the numbers.

Work and Retirement

  • 52 percent of the earliest boomers are fully retired, up from 19 percent in 2007 and 45 percent in 2011.
  • 21 percent are working full-time. They plan to retire on average at age 71.2, up from 66.3 in 2007 and 68.6 in 2011.
  • 30 percent expect to retire later than they had planned. Of this group, 27 percent say they need their salary, while 32 percent report that they enjoy working.
  • 12 percent are retired but working part-time or seasonally.
  • 4 percent are self-employed.
  • Only 1 percent are looking for work.
  • Of those who are retired, 66 percent say they like it a lot, and 27 percent are somewhat happy with it.
  • The average age of retirement was 59.5.
  • When asked why they left the workforce, nearly four in 10 cited the fact that they just wanted to retire as the primary reason. Another 17 percent reported health issues as the main incentive. Significantly more respondents cited being laid off or unable to find work as the basis for their retirement in 2012 (10 percent) than in 2011 (6 percent).
  • 47 percent said they retired later than expected due to a variety of financial reasons.

Income and Housing

  • 86 percent are collecting Social Security benefits, and 43 percent collected them earlier than they had planned.
  • 20 percent are confident and 46 percent are somewhat confident in Social Security’s ability to provide them with adequate lifetime benefits.
  • A little over half have reached or are on track to meet their retirement savings goals, an increase from 38 percent who said so in 2008.
  • 34 percent said they are somewhat or significantly behind in their savings.
  • 58 percent reported lower income than when they were working, but only 20 percent of this group reported that their standard of living has decreased, and 18 percent reported an increase in standard of living.
  • 16 percent said their income has increased a little or a lot in retirement. Of that group, 47 percent cited lower expenses in retirement as the reason.
  • 40 percent have paid off their mortgages, while 8 percent are upside down on their mortgages.

Family, Health and Aging

  • 83 percent of the oldest boomers are empty nesters, while 17 percent still have kids living at home.
  • Those who are grandparents have an average of 4.8 grandchildren -- up from 2.6 in 2008.
  • 79 percent have neither parent still living.
  • 31 percent reported concerns about providing for their own or spouse’s long-term care needs.
  • 16 percent see themselves as being sharpest mentally now, in their 60s, but the largest group (30 percent) believes they were sharpest in their 40s.
  • 82 percent plan to “age in place” and not move in the future.
  • More than 10 percent are caring for their aging parents or other older relatives who are still living.
  • More than 50 percent believe their generation is leaving a positive legacy for future generations.

Test Yourself

Do you know much money you’ll need to retire comfortably? Try taking the eye-opening MetLife Retirement Income Quiz. Sadly, I only got 11 out of 14 correct.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.