The magic retirement age

Conventional wisdom holds that most Americans entering their 50s and 60s will have to keep working well past their planned retirement dates to make up for shortfalls in savings.
 
But a new report from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, “Transitioning into Retirement,” suggests that might not be true. It found that among the oldest Baby Boomers, those who turned 65 in 2011, almost twice as many told researchers that they were fully retired as were working full time: 45% and 24%, respectively.
 
The average age at retirement for those surveyed was 59.7 for men and 57.2 for women. This is a small segment of Baby Boomers, of course, and the reasons for retiring vary.