Transcription
So, what is the perfect age to retire? You know, we're fortunate because there's two new studies out that survey retirees that look back and say, "This is the age I wish I had retired." So, we're going to look at two studies. The first one's by Pew Research and the second one's by Mass Mutual. And the one by Mass Mutual is super important because it says when retirees are not happy, what causes them to not be happy? So, let's jump in.
Let's start first with the Pew Research Report. It's it's called what age do people around the world think is best is best to reach major life uh milestones and one of those milestones is retirement. We're going to extract that from the study. Okay. The best age to retire in most countries the ideal age for retirement is younger than the age at which people start receiving age-based retirement benefits. Here in the US, you could argue that that's 67 for most of us when most of us will get our full social security benefit. Uh but here's what it looks like around the world when they ask people what's the best age to retire on average. And this is uh 18 countries and you can see they go Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Thailand, India, South Africa to uh Tunisia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Turkey, and Colombia.
And what's interesting here is the average of those 18 countries. Now, notice that the US is not here. They did a separate study of the United States. We're going to get to that. But the dark line going from the top to the bottom, that's the average. So you can see the people earlier in the list. So the average was 58 and the people earlier in the list said that uh retirement age is older. And then further down the list, retirement age is is younger. And I can tell you I've been to many of those countries. I've I've been to Chile. I've been to Peru, Argentina, Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico. I have not been to Bangladesh or or Sri Lanka or Brazil and I have been to Turkey and Colombia. And what many of those countries have that have early retirement is a system where they do not have a strong social safety net. Um, they don't have 401ks, they don't have IAS. What they have instead is KIDS. They have kids and really it's their younger kids that that retire mom and dad. you know, one of the the older children will come home and say, "I'm now making enough that I can retire mom and dad." And then that burden falls on that child's shoulders. Now, that seems unusual to us in the US, Canada, and Europe, but in many parts of the country, it's how it works and it works pretty well. So, there's a lot of advantages to that multi-generational household. Okay.
But you came here uh many of you came here not not for what people think in Argentina and Peru but for what people think in the US probably Canada and Europe as well maybe Australia countries like that and I'm going to get to that but before I do let me make a quick pitch for you to subscribe to my channel and to like this video. My clients used to pay thousands of dollars a year for my for my thoughts and I'm really really I'm thrilled to be able to give it away for free. It's one of my goals is to be able to share share what I learned with a broader audience. The only thing I ask in in return is hit the like button. It's completely free to you, the thumbs up button, hit the subscribe button. Um, and you'll help me and you'll also help yourself by hitting the subscribe button because you won't miss future videos of mine. Okay, let's keep going.
So, people across the world um generally said the ideal age of retirement is in one's late 50s. You're going to be surprised what it is here in the US. And this article is about life milestones. And we're talking about retirement. But just quickly, you know, these are the other life milestones. So the perfect age to get married according to the survey of 18 nations is almost 26 years old. Having the first child is just a couple months after that 26.1. Buying a home is 30. You know when I was 30 that was the average age of a firsttime home buyer. Unfortunately here in the US that's increased from 30 to 40. And the average age of a second home buyer. So not somebody buying a second home where they own two homes but they're they're it's not their first home. It's I guess the way I should say it. And that is now 59 years old. I mean, we're almost senior citizens, people buying what is not our first home anymore. And you can see here the the perfect age to retire across the world, not the US, is 57.9.
So, what age do Americans say is the perfect age to retire? Um, and I'm going to cut right to the chase, but before I do, I want to talk about, you know, how do you know, how do you have confidence that you have enough money to retire? And you know that by building a financial plan, either by working with a financial advisor or by building your own plan. If you're going to build your own plan, I urge you to use software designed to help you do a good job of it as opposed to using Google Sheets or Excel. The software I like is called Bulvin. Used to be called New Retirement. You can sign up for it at this link. I like it because it's powerful. It's easy to use and it's super affordable. There's no reason not to. And if you use this link, you'll get a 2 week free trial for yourself. Um, that'll help you find out is this the right tool for you and you'll be supporting the channel because I am an affiliate.
Okay, getting right to the point, the the average age. Now, remember that we've got the Mass Mutual study coming up and it has a different number and it also has factors that made people unhappy. So, don't tune out when I give you this number. The average age when they when Pew Research interviewed Americans was 61.8 years old. Frankly, that surprised me. It's on the higher end. So almost 62 years old. And I want to remind you at 60 years old, unfortunately, most of us have less than a thousand weeks of healthy, active time in front of us. And and that doesn't leave you much time if you wait until, you know, you're 60. I mean, it's you do what you do. But if you can retire in your late 50s, many many people look back and say, "I'm I'm glad I did it."
And speaking with Mass Mutual is, let's go to Mass Mutual because this is their recent retirement happiness study. And it says a majority of retirees report feeling more relaxed, less stressed, and happier since retiring. I can I can vouch for all three of those. And those would probably be my three biggest emotions. Definitely less stressed. Um, I love being able to do things on my pace, but let's keep going with the study. To, the report goes on to say, to achieve happiness in retirement, it's crucial to work on financial and physical health prior to retiring. We already talked about coming up with a plan using Boliv, but your physical health is your, frankly, your health is much more important than your wealth. They're both really important, but most of us spend 10, 100 times more time saving our money than we do saving our health. And I want you to think about building your health as well as building your wealth. Uh, and investing the time, the effort, the money into working out, into going to the gym, into eating healthy, doing what you can, both physical health, but also your mental health.
Okay, let's keep going. Happier retirees tend to be more active, engaging in activities like exercise uh or pursuing hobbies and spending more time with loved ones during their free time. On average, according to this study, it's 63 years old. So, Americans are tough on themselves. They think the average age to retire is quite a bit higher than in most other countries. And and what about the retirees that aren't happy? We can learn a lot from them. Here's what it says. of the retirees that were not happy, nearly half, 47% uh said that they felt lonely at times and that compared to just 16% of retirees saying that they're lonely if they're happy in retirement. So, three times higher, three times higher feeling of loneliness between the happy and the unhappy retirees. And 30 33% of retirees that were not happy in retirement said that there was less romance in dating in retirement than they expected. Uh compared to 19% of people saying there was less romance from the happy group. So my big takeaway from this is relationships are really key, right? Our financial health, our physical health in relationships. If we can get those three right, I think much of the rest is going to take care of itself. But what will not take care of itself is the decision at what age do you decide to retire. And that's why I made this video here. Why waiting to 65 to retire might be a big mistake. Thanks for watching this video. I'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.