Can money buy happiness

This website posts the results of an interesting poll conducted by Harris of 2000 adults.

This chart shows at what age a generation feels that a person can retire given the current economic environment.  The site compares the retirement age from the poll know compared to the retirement age from a poll taken a year ago.  Clearly, every generation feels the economic environment now is significantly worse than it was a year ago.  I’d be curious if this information exists for the year before the Covid shut down.

Gen Z (1996 to 2012) are very early in their careers, so may be in college or unsure about careers.  The survey was only people over 18, so kids in school didn’t count.  Perhaps they expect that in decades, the general trend is favorable.  I, and probably they, don’t know anyone who has retired at 49 or 54 years old.  It’s interesting that the year slipped 5 years.  That indicates a lack of confidence in the long-term trend.

As the generations get older, the change from a year ago is smaller.  That makes sense in that there are fewer uncertainties with few decades to go to retirement.

According to Gallup, in 2022, the average age to retire was 61 years old.  Boomers (1946 to 1964) are 59 to 77 years old.  Almost all of the Boomers should be retired.  It’s not at all clear why the expected year of retirement is so far off.  The survey doesn’t say, but perhaps only working people responded.  Any Boomer not currently retired may feel that retirement isn’t likely in the near future.