On Time

Fifty-nine percent of the first Baby Boomers to turn 65 are at least partially retired.

According to “Transitioning into Retirement: The MetLife Study of Baby Boomers at 65,” 45% of Boomers are completely retired and 14% are retired but working part time. Of those still working, 37% said they will retire in the next year and, on average, plan to do so by the time they are 68.

Half (51%) of those who are retired said they stopped working earlier than they had expected. Of those, four in 10 mentioned health reasons. The majority (85%) of respondents considered themselves healthy, and almost all (96%) said they like retirement “at least somewhat.” Seventy percent said they like retirement “a lot.”

Almost two-thirds (63%) of respondents are already collecting Social Security benefits and, on average, began doing so at age 63, defying the conventional wisdom that people would choose to wait to receive benefits until a later age to qualify for a higher payout. Just over 60% of those surveyed were confident that the Social Security system will be able to provide adequate benefits for their lifetime.

The data shows that 43% of those polled are optimistic about the future. Of the 19% who are pessimistic about what lies ahead, 49% fault the government and 21% blame the economy. The 65-year-old Boomers do not consider themselves old and, on average, will not do so until they reach age 79.

“Many of the Boomers weathered the recession well and have been able to stop working,” says Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. “Half of all Boomers feel confident that they are on track or have already hit their retirement goals. We found that more are homeowners today than in 2008, that the value of their homes decreased by only about 5.2% on average, that the majority feel they are in good health and that 83% have grandchildren. Overall, it is a pretty confident group of Americans.”

The 1,012 respondents born in 1946 were surveyed by random digit-dial telephone contact.