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You’ll Never Retire If This Trend Continues

Neil Munro White House Correspondent
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The age of retirement has shot up by two years since 2012, according to a new survey by Gallup.

Since 2012, after President Barack Obama declared the government-fostered recession had ended, the average age of actual retirement has climbed from 60 to 62, according to the April 28 Gallup report.

The average age of retirement was age 60 from 2005 to 2012, except for a one-year drop in 2010, to age 59. That drop was likely caused by the retirement of many older Americans during the recession.

Since 2010, the public’s prediction about when they expect to retire has climbed from 65 to 66, says the report.

Curiously, younger Americans are most optimistic about their retirement age, despite the stalled economy, shriveling middle-class incomes, and the federal government’s growing debt, which has spiked to $18 trillion up from $11 trillion in 2008.

Fifteen percent of people aged below thirty expect to retire by age 60. But only 1 percent of Americans aged between 50 and 55 expect to retire by age 60.

The difference in attitudes may be caused by older Americans’ growing worries about paying for retirement. Fifty-nine percent of Americans worry about not having enough money for retirement, while 35 percent worry about not being able to children’s college bills, said an April 22 Gallup report.

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Neil Munro