Workers Pushing Back Retirement Until 80?

Just how old are you willing to work until before you can retire? That number increases all the time, and the chief executive officer of AIG just increased fears with a recent comment.

Bloomberg

In an interview with , Robert Benmosche said that retirement ages will have to move to 70 years or even 80 years old. These longer working years would be the only way to take burden off youth and to make pensions and medical services more affordable.

Bloomberg

Benmosche also said that Europe’s debt crisis is teaching governments that they have to adjust for ever-increasing life expectancies. In Greece retirement age is 59.6, but the average life expectancy is 81.3 years, reported.

The state of the global economy has introduced a few ideas of what the “new normal” is, including health spending, and retirement is definitely another change people will be making going forward. So although Benmosche was speaking specifically about Europe, his words apply to Americans too.

As of last month, Gallup reported that the average age of retirement was 67.

Dealing with longer life expectancies has been wreaking all sorts of havoc on retirement plans. As a result, many people aren’t even considering age anymore when planning for retirement.

In November 2011, a Wells Fargo survey revealed that three-quarters of respondents won’t retire until they’ve saved a specific amount of money and even once retiring, 74% plan to still work.

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