Mildred Heath, 101, works half-days at the Beacon-Observer, a local newspaper that her family owned until June. Photo by Jose Mandojana

One study, called “Debt: The Detour on America’s Road to Retirement,” released in May by the Securian Financial Group in St. Paul, Minn., compared older Americans’ finances from the start of the recession to February 2009. In that period, the share of boomers who reported consumer debt of $25,000 or more rose from 28 percent to 38 percent, while those who owed at least $50,000 rose from 12 percent to 22 percent.

“Even if you’ve done all the right things,” like living within your means and socking away hefty savings, “you could still be in trouble,” says Harvey Sterns, director of the Institute for Lifespan Development and Gerontology at the University of Akron. “We’re in a reset period,” he says, “where people are going to think very differently about retirement from now on because of the sense of vulnerability.”

Blame the sour economy, Bernie Madoff or other factors, but Americans’ concerns over retirement savings have been well documented. In one poll of 500 older workers in July by Golden Gateway Financial in California, 50 percent said they would retire after age 70.

By all accounts, retiring very late in life, or not at all, may deprive people of the benefits that come with those years—spending time with grandchildren, enjoying hobbies and just plain relaxing.

“I think there is such a thing as retiring too late,” says Bing Chen, a professor of gerontology at the University of Massachusetts and an expert on retirement issues. “But there’s a whole subgroup of people who want to keep on working,”

The work-longer trend has prompted its own brand of humor, with media reports that read “Die at Your Desk” or “Work Till You Drop.” Boomers at the water cooler talk seriously about working well into their 80s, even as they joke about the guy who voices the dreariest outlook: “I expect to be working two years after I die.”

But despite the jokes, despite the harsh realities, as the country prepares to face a historically unprecedented aging labor force, AARP’s Rix says she remains sure about one thing: “We’ll definitely see more people working into their 80s—but people will still want to retire at some point.”

Carole Fleck is a senior editor at the AARP Bulletin.

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