The brief’s key findings are: Workers who think they have excellent chances of living to ages 75 and 85 plan to work longer than those who think their chances are poor. These perceptions of life expectancy also influence workers’ actual retirement behavior, though to a lesser degree. These...

Eligibility for Medicare at age 65 is widely viewed as an important factor in retirement decisions. However, it has been difficult to quantify the influence of Medicare because eligibility for Medicare came at the same age as Social Security’s Full Retirement Age (FRA). The recent rise in the...

Increasing life expectancy has made working longer both more necessary and more possible, but the relationship between an individual’s survival expectations and his planned retirement age is unclear in the existing literature. This study uses the Health and Retirement Study and an instrumental...