This just in from a survey commissioned from ING Direct:Four in 10 Americans believe the current economic climate will force them to retire up to 10 years later than originally expected, or not at all.

There’s not a lot of detail in the release about how that sentiment breaks down by age — I’ll try to get more details and update soon. The survey of 1,223 adults was conducted in mid-Februrary and as I’m sure you know, things have taken a turn for the worse since then.

As someone in my early 30s, I figure I won’t retire until I am 70, if not later. A 30 year retirement period is not sustainable for most people today and I figure the likelihood of such a prolonged vacation is itty-bitty for my generation.

Given my age and my commitment to taking a long-term view, I doubt the events of the last 15 months will set me back a decade or prevent me from retiring at all. But I admit I haven’t run the numbers. That might just be too depressing. I’ll keep my head in the sand for another few months, thank you very much.

Is your retirement on track despite the downturn? Are you planning to retire with a smaller portfolio, or postpone the start of your golden years until things settle down? If you’re younger, like me, are you staying the course? Saving more? Less?

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 6:02 pm and is filed under retirement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.