You know my approach to building financial security is to hope for the best and plan for the worst. That’s why I have always been concerned when people tell me their retirement plan is to keep working through their sixties, or to maybe never retire.
As I have often explained, this is a dangerous strategy as many people end up retired long before they planned, and without the savings needed to cover those unanticipated years without earned income.
One of the primary reasons people often end up retiring before they planned is because they are either laid off or they decide they just can’t keep up at work anymore.
And AI is making this an even bigger problem by adding a new variable to the mix. Older workers already face traditional risks of early exit—like health issues, corporate downsizing, or burnout. But a report from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College shows that when AI enters an industry, those exits accelerate—whether from job restructuring, shifting skill demands, or workers deciding they don’t want to navigate another tech overhaul.
There is no question that the “disruption” from AI is likely to continue in the coming years. And it is affecting every generation. But I want to focus on how it creates a very dangerous risk for anyone 50+ who has “working longer” as a centerpiece of their retirement plan.
If that just rang true for you, I hope you will consider these two strategies for dealing with the risk AI has introduced into the work-later retirement plan:
Save more for retirement.
I need you to stand in your truth and think hard about how you can save more. Don’t just dismiss this as impossible without giving serious thought to whether you can spend less on wants to boost your savings.
And I have to be honest, continuing to subsidize a young adult’s rent if you aren’t feeling financially secure is not okay. I know you want to help them, but what happens if you end up not being able to support yourself in retirement? I wish no one had to consider these hard tradeoffs, but I deal in reality, not wishful thinking. (When practical, I also think parents/grandparents and adult children living together can be a huge financial boost for everyone.)
Embrace change at work.
A recent AARP survey found that while some of the over 50 crowd were learning how to use AI at work, a larger share of older workers weren’t open to learning and adapting. Look, this leap forward is indeed unsettling. I get it. But refusing to learn and adapt just makes you more vulnerable.
I also think there’s value as we age in pushing ourselves to keep learning and adapting. We can’t control the future, but we have a say in the effort we put into doing everything we can to ensure our financial security. And right now, that could mean learning how to use AI at work, or considering retraining if your current job is one that your employer has decided is something AI can now handle. While some employers are laying off workers as they shift more of the work to AI, many are also offering internal transfers to new jobs/divisions. I hope you will be open to change.
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