Retirement: Is 80 the new 65?

The traditional retirement age of 65 is a thing of the past, according to a new survey from Wells Fargo. Many Americans say they intend to work well into their retirement years, and a quarter say they won't have enough money saved to retire comfortably until they're 80, if ever. Three quarters of the 1,500 middle-class Americans surveyed said the amount you have squirreled away — not your age — should determine when you slow down. Meanwhile, just 20 percent said you should pick an age and quit then, no matter how much money you have. What does this survey say about how Americans will spend their Golden Years? Here, four takeaways:

1. Many people don't want to retire

Not everyone who plans to work into retirement is doing it just to pay their bills. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed said they'll keep working because they want to. But some in this group still plan to slow down a bit — 42 percent say they'll look for something with "less responsibility."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

2. Americans are bad at saving

The average person has set aside just 7 percent of his hoped-for retirement savings — a median of just $25,000 versus a desired goal of $350,000, according to the survey. Three in 10 people in their 60s have less than $25,000, suggesting they'll have no choice but to live on Social Security. One rule of thumb suggests that to retire worry-free, you'll need a nest egg of 10 times your final salary.

3. And they worry about relying on Social Security

The Social Security system is facing an uncertain future, with baby boomers retiring and not enough money being paid into the system to cover all future benefits. Americans are factoring that into their expectations. Survey respondents in their sixties are counting on Social Security to provide 60 percent of their retirement income, while those in their fifties are banking on only 36 percent. That might be why younger people have fewer objections than their elders to cutting benefits to put the system on better financial footing.

4. We've lost our pie-in-the-sky attitude

The recession has left us rattled, making pessimism rampant. In a Yahoo! Finance survey, 41 percent of respondents ages 18 to 64 said the American Dream is "out of reach." Thirty-seven percent said they had no retirement savings at all. Fewer than half had saved anything to pay for college for their kids.

Sources: ABC News, Financial, LA Times (2), Motley Fool, Wells Fargo