Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTAditi GangulySun, July 19, 2026 at 4:46 PM GMT+2 10 min readWavebreakmedia/EnvatoMoneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.Most American workers assume they'll call it quits around 65. But most are wrong, and the gap between expectation and reality carries serious financial consequences.According to the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey put out by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research, nearly half of retirees (46%) left the workforce earlier than planned (1). The average actual retirement age was 62, while the average age workers expected to retire remained 65.Must ReadA separate study paints an equally striking picture. The Society of Actuaries Research Institute (SARI)'s latest Retirement Risk Survey — which surveyed 2,012 Americans aged 45 to 80 — found that 59% of retirees left the workforce before they had expected, while only 6% retired later than planned (2).What's driving those early exits?Three causes dominate the data — and two of them have nothing to do with personal choice. Here are the top three reasons why Americans are retiring early.1. Health setbacksHealth problems are the single most common cause of unplanned early retirement, and they fall hardest on lower-income workers. According to the SARI report, changes in health status were cited by 49% of retirees with incomes under $35,000 as the primary reason for retiring early (2).The EBRI/Greenwald survey reinforces this finding, with TheStreet noting that 41% of those who retired early did so because of a health problem or disability — 10% more than the year before (3).That financial impact compounds quickly. Retiring at age 62 instead of 65 means three fewer years of contributions, three additional years of withdrawals and — critically — three years without employer-sponsored health insurance before Medicare eligibility begins at age 65 (4).2. Job loss and employer-driven disruptionThe second major cause of early retirement isn't voluntary either. Corporate restructuring, downsizing and business closures accounted for 35% of early retirements, according to the EBRI/Greenwald survey. When older workers lose jobs, reemployment at comparable wages is often difficult to achieve — and many effectively retire by default rather than by design (3).Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info