Millions of seniors are working because they have no choice
According to the Transamerica Center for Retirement Research, 56% of baby boomers are either already working past age 70, think they will work past age 70 or don't think they will ever retire.
In 82% of cases, those boomers said that working late in life is necessary for financial reasons.
A look at the account balances of older Americans shows why so many may be forced to keep working for such a long time.
Vanguard's How America Saves report revealed that the median defined benefit contribution account balance is just $87,571 among those 55 to 64 while individuals who are 65 and over have a median balance of only $88,488.
For a 65-year-old senior with the median balance who wants to maintain a safe 4% withdrawal rate, their investments would only give them $3,539.52 in annual income from savings.
Sadly, Social Security isn’t going to fill in much of the gap, either.
The average Social Security benefit in 2025 is only $1,976 per month, so the income from savings and Social Security for someone who received the typical benefits from both would only be $27,252. That’s roughly $10,000 away from the federal poverty line.
With such a low income, it's no wonder so many older Americans feel like they have to work to bring in more money.
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Discover the secretHow to invest to avoid having to work into retirement
If you don't want to have to work past your full retirement age, your best option is to start investing as early as possible and to invest as much as possible.
As Kamel suggested, you should start investing as much as you can even if it isn't a lot so you can start to get compound growth working for you.
Compound growth helps your wealth grow since your returns can be reinvested. If you start early enough, you can turn a small amount of money into a nest egg that's easily big enough to retire on.
In fact, if you invest $300 a month for 35 years and earn 10% average annual returns, you'll have close to $1 million by retirement age.
If you’re starting later, it's going to take more money to get to your goal — but the key is to just get going because investing in something is better than nothing.
If you have the option, you can sign up to have just a little bit of money taken out of your paycheck and put into your 401(k) or transfer a little bit of money to an IRA on payday if you don't have a 401(k). Then, increase it over time.
You can also save your raises before you get used to living on the extra money to increase the amount you're investing and put tax refunds or cash gifts into retirement accounts. Or you can even pick up a side gig and invest all the money you earn from it.
The earlier you start taking these steps, the less likely it is you will need to work into retirement. Of course, if you're already in retirement or near it, it's going to be harder.
You should still aim to save as much as you can, though, because every dollar you can put into the market is a dollar that can work for you and get you closer to a secure future.
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