Do you dream of stopping work years before reaching retirement age or do you plan to continue working long after becoming a pensioner? Here's some facts and figures to consider.
Recent research suggests that the Dutch are in the first group. The 2018 edition of the annual Wijzer in Geldzaken (Money Wise) pension monitor found that 72% of Dutch employees want to stop working, on average six years, before the state pension (AOW) age of 67. But only about half of this group expects to actually be able to do due to financial constraints.
About 20% of Dutch employees, in contrast, want to continue working for an average of five years post-retirement, the pension monitor says.
The Netherlands is an interesting case as the country has the highest median retirement age of the 15 countries reviewed in Aegon's annual Retirement Readiness surveys. The reports are based on surveys of over 1,400 people in 15 countries.
The issues surrounding when and how to transition to retirement are becoming increasingly relevant across the world as people live longer and remain in good health longer. The life expectancy at birth in OECD countries now averages over 80 years, and the percentage of a person's life spent in good health is increasing. As a result, people are physically and mentally capable of remaining in the workforce longer than their parents' generation.
Increasing longevity also puts a strain on retirement system designed when people did not live as long. In response, governments around the world are either contemplating or have started implementing reforms, such as increasing the age at which people become eligible for government retirement benefits.
Early retirement
There are two ways of looking at early retirement, says Mike Mansfield, Manager Retirement Research at the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement (ACLR). One is to look at the expectations of people coming up to retirement and the other is looking back at the experience of people who retired.
"Looking forward, 57 percent of people questioned for the 2017 Aegon Retirement Readiness survey said they envisaged some form of transition to retirement and that they would continue to work in some shape or form after retirement. The main reasons for that were positive: they enjoyed work and wanted to stay active," Mansfield says.
Some 31 percent of this group plan to work part-time for a while before they eventually stop working altogether, 16 percent who will change
the way the work by perhaps going part-time or working in a different capacity, and 10 percent who say that reaching retirement age won't make a difference to the way they work.
Globally, only one in three of today's workers considers retirement to be a moment when they will immediately stop working and fully retire. Clearly, only a small amount of workers globlly actively plan to stop work before retirement.
Key considerations
And what are the key messages to be drawn from the experiences of people who have already retired?
Health
Wealth
Stopping earlier with work has been an important element of Aegon's annual Retirement Readiness Survey for several years. The reports are based on surveys of over 1,400 people in 15 countries.
Aegon's research shows there are two ways of looking at early retirement, says Mike Mansfield, Manager Retirement Research at the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement (ACLR). 'One is is to look at the expectations of people coming up to retirement. The other is looking back at the experience of people who retired.'
"Looking forward, 57% of people said they envisaged some form of transition to retirement and that they would continue to work in some shape or firn after retirement. The main reasons for that were positive: they enjoyed work and wanted to stay active," Mansfield said.
The life expectancy at birth in OECD countries now averages over 80 years, and the percentage of a person's life spent in good health ("health expectancy") is increasing. As a result, people are physically and mentally capable of remaining in the workforce longer than their parents' generation.
"looking forward, 57% of people said they envisioned some form of transition to retirement; that they would continue working in some way, shape or form after retirement. The biggest reasons for that were positive: they enjoyed work and wanted to stay active. That is usually our starting point. Flexible retirement report (country profile on the netherlands)
The second part is looking back that is where we find out that 39% of people globally retired sooner than they planned and the biggest single reason was ill-heatlh. That brought us to the big discussion in 2017 about the importance of maintaining good health so you can continue to work as long as you can.