Some older homeowners fear they can’t afford to retire on time — or ever stop working

Close to one in three older US homeowners doubt they can afford to retire on time or at all, a new survey indicates.

Point, a home-equity platform, surveyed more than 1,000 homeowners ages 50 and older. It found that many were worried whether their finances would let them leave the workforce.

In the survey, 29% of respondents said they weren’t very confident they could retire on time or exit the workforce, 25% said they were somewhat confident they wouldn’t have to delay retirement, while 46% said they were very confident they could retire on time.

Point also found that 15% of working homeowners ages 50 and over reported having saved less than $10,000 for retirement, and 88% of that group said they doubted they’d be able to retire on time or at all.

Among those who reported having savings of $50,000 or less, 72% raised concerns about affording retirement, compared with 25% of those who said they had $250,000 in the bank.

Insufficient savings, housing costs, interest rates, inflation, and medical and other life-changing events were the top five reasons given by those expecting to delay retirement or planning a return to work.

Many Americans have been hit hard by soaring prices for food, fuel, housing, and other essentials in recent years. Headline inflation hit a 40-year high of more than 9% in June 2022 and remains above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2% a year.

The Fed rushed to cool price growth by hiking its benchmark interest rate from virtually zero to north of 5% within 18 months and waited until this September to make its first cut. Higher rates have raised people’s monthly payments on their credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and other debts.

Surging prices and steeper borrowing costs have eaten into household budgets, forcing many cash-strapped people to save less, borrow more, and break open their piggy banks to stay afloat.

One consequence is that older Americans’ efforts to save for retirement have been thwarted. Some now face the prospect of working for longer with no end in sight.

Gainful employment in old age can make some people happy and give them purpose — Warren Buffett is still the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at age 94, for example — but many would say that working in your twilight years should be a choice rather than a necessity.

It’s worth noting that Point specializes in helping homeowners turn their home equity into cash, so it stands to gain from a situation in which many aspiring retirees are short on cash and seeking to leverage the value of their homes to fund their retirements.

The survey was conducted by Point using SurveyMonkey Audience, with responses collected from 1,026 individuals in October.