David Kirsch is hoping he can retire at 70.
He’s 64 years old, and his dream is to buy a gently used sailboat, sell most of his belongings, and spend his golden years traveling around the Caribbean and South America.
But Kirsch — a resident of Hill, New Hampshire — feels like his sailboat is drifting further and further away. He has an IT job and earns $64,805 a year, according to documents viewed by Business Insider. He said he maintains IRA accounts and puts money into his 401(k), but he still isn’t confident he’s saved enough to retire.
Kirsch is hoping to start collecting Social Security checks in a couple of years, just before his 67th birthday. That additional money would allow him to put more of his professional income into his retirement accounts during the last years of his career, he said.
“My biggest fear is finding myself at 75 standing at the door at Walmart greeting people as they come in,” he told BI.
Kirsch isn’t alone. He’s one of 30 million Americans known as “peak boomers,” a group of baby boomers born between 1959 and 1964 who will start turning 65 this year and are heading toward retirement. However, many of these boomers are worried about having enough money to fully stop working and cover their living expenses.
The Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey found that more than half of Americans over 65 have an annual income of $30,000 or less. And, per an April report from the retirement research firm Alliance Lifetime Income’s Retirement Income Institute, 52.5% of boomers have $250,000 or less in assets.
For many, Social Security won’t be enough to fill the gaps. As of March 2024, the Social Security Administration said that its average monthly check sent to recipients is $1,774.83. And, if lawmakers don’t intervene, the US Social Security fund is set to dry out by the late 2030s.
This group of boomers is feeling the consequences of the US’ switch from an employer-funded pension to the employee-funded 401(k) system in the 1980s.
Even with aggressive saving, he’s not sure about the future
Kirsch’s anxiety about retirement has fluctuated throughout his career. He has experienced a few periods of unemployment that made saving money difficult, and his past employers didn’t always offer retirement benefits. He has been in his current job for the past 12 years and is now using “highly aggressive” retirement contributions to reach his goals, he said.
He said his top expenses right now are his car payment, gas money, and the cost of housing and utilities. Kirsch is in good health, but worries about affording medical care if that changes.
He also said he isn’t sure he would be able to return to work after retirement because of hiring discrimination for older adults.
“If I’m by myself, out-competed, in need for money, in my seventies, and having health problems — life’s going suck, that’s my fear,” Kirsch said.
Kirsch wishes more people understood that some older adults aren’t able to adequately prepare for retirement because of life circumstances. He also wishes government safety net programs for affordable housing and healthcare didn’t wait for people to reach “critical status” and be “destitute” before they provide assistance.
Although he hasn’t given up on his sailboat dream, Kirsch said he’s anxious about having enough to live comfortably a decade from now. He often tells his young adult son to think about retirement early.
“Start saving and do it as aggressively as you can,” he said. “And, when you can’t be aggressive, still save something.”