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CRR Releases Report on Early Retirement
On February 12, 2019, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR) released its report, Retiring Earlier Than Planned: What Matters Most? According to CRR, over 33% of older workers retire earlier than planned. The report examines: 1) the impact of unexpected changes in health, employment, family and finances on early retirement; and 2) the frequency of these occurrences, or “shocks.”
The findings suggest:
- Health shocks are the main reason for early retirement since they are most common.
- Although not as prevalent, employment shocks such as a job loss without finding a new job is also a key reason for early retirement.
- Familial shocks or family transitions have a slight impact on retiring early.
- Financial shocks seem to have little effect on early retirement.
Importantly, all the shocks combined explain only about 25% of earlier-than-planned retirements. Therefore, the analysis suggests that further research is required to help determine the factors driving early retirement.
The report is available here.