Sixty percent of high net worth individuals say they will never retire, according to a new survey that has spotted a trend of the nevertiree.
The report, by Barclays Wealth, surveyed more than 2,000 high net worth individuals, who were asked to consider what retirement and later life means to them. The findings show that the concept of nevertirement is expected to grow over the coming decades, with over 70 percent of respondents under the age of 45 saying that they will always be involved in some form of work.
Emerging markets such as Saudi Arabia (92 percent), United Arab Emirates (91 percent) and South Africa (89 percent) illustrated the biggest desire to keep on working in later life, however the concept is also popular in developed economies with the U.S. (54 percent), and the U.K. (60 percent) showing a desire to carry on working. Switzerland (34 percent), Spain (44 percent) and Japan (46 percent) are the most likely to want a conventional retirement.
In particular, 75 percent of U.S. respondents plan to work part time after they have stopped working permanently, 7 percent more than the global average. Specifically, 32 percent plan to work between five and 20 hours per week in "retirement" and 7 percent plan to work more than 20 hours per week.
While the majority of wealthy expect retirement will mean being involved in some type of work, attitudes are also shifting in terms of when to retire. For 63 percent of U.S. wealthy, "simply reaching the normal age to retire" is not at all important in determining when they stop working.
When planning for retirement 35 percent of U.S. wealthy feel that the rate of tax they have to pay is predictable, compared to 58 percent of Latin American high net worth individuals and 73 percent of wealthy individuals in Switzerland.
Further, one in ten of the wealthiest surveyed do not agree that they have enough money for retirement (greater than $15 million in investable assets). Among the global wealthy who are already retired, only 51 percent agree they are completely confident in having enough money for their retirement.
