@article {10090, title = {Retiring earlier than planned: What matters most?}, number = {IB$\#$19-3}, year = {2019}, institution = {Center for Retirement Research at Boston College}, address = {Newton, MA}, abstract = {The brief{\textquoteright}s key findings are: More than a third of older workers retire earlier than planned: the question is why? This study looks at: 1) the impact of unexpected changes in health, employment, family, and finances on early retirement; and 2) the prevalence of these shocks.The findings suggest that: Health shocks play the largest role, mainly because they are widespread.Job loss without finding a new job, while not as prevalent, is also important. Family transitions have a modest impact, while financial shocks appear to have little effect. A key caveat is that all the shocks combined explain only about a quarter of earlier-than-planned retirements, so clearly other factors are also at play.}, keywords = {Health Shocks, Retirement Planning \& Satisfaction, Wealth Shocks}, url = {https://crr.bc.edu/briefs/retiring-earlier-than-planned-what-matters-most/}, author = {Alicia H. Munnell and Matthew S. Rutledge and Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher} }