Solutions sought for retirees’ stormy financial forecast

Baby boomers confront a torrent of negative retirement news. For starters, in the United States three in five retirees will outlive their financial assets if they keep up their preretirement standard of living, and the average 65-year-old will face more than $250,000 in out-of-pocket healthcare costs over the remainder of their lives. And in Canada, people over age 65 have the highest bankruptcy and insolvency rates in the country and are thus finding themselves forced to reenter the workforce in droves.

Experts advise retirees to do their homework well in advance. Not surprisingly, those facing retirement today say that if they had it to do over, they’d save more and earlier. Even as baby boomers retire earlier than expected, it seems the majority of us would be best prepared financially if we retired at age 70 or later so as to avoid dipping into savings as long as possible. Governments around the globe that are struggling to cough up state pensions are considering whether to raise the official retirement age.

That said, retirement certainly isn’t all gloom and financial doom. The average person 65 or older sleeps nine hours a day and devotes just over seven hours a day to leisure and sports activities—spending twice as much time as do younger people reading, thinking, and relaxing. Now those are luxuries worth waiting for.

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