Gen Z’s Retirement Dream vs. Reality: They Share an Ideal Age but Admit They’ll Work Far Beyond It

Forget the gold watch and the pension plan. The latest generation entering the workforce is already crunching the numbers on their exit strategy—and the math isn't adding up.

The Dream vs. The Spreadsheet

A stark gap has emerged between aspiration and expectation. While a specific age gets floated in conversations about freedom and fulfillment, the cold, hard forecast tells a different story. This generation isn't planning for early seaside retirements; they're bracing for decades more in the grind.

Why the Clock Keeps Ticking

Blame it on the usual suspects—sky-high living costs, volatile job markets, and a nagging suspicion that traditional safety nets might be full of holes by the time they need them. The old playbook of 'work 40, retire at 65' reads like a fantasy novel. Instead, the strategy is shifting toward perpetual income streams and side hustles that outlive a traditional career.

The New Retirement Portfolio

It's less about a 401(k) hitting a magic number and more about building an engine that never stops. Think digital assets, automated revenue, and skills that remain valuable beyond a corporate org chart. The finish line isn't a date on a calendar; it's a state of financial autonomy. (And if that sounds like a pitch from a finfluencer, well, maybe they're onto something—or just selling another course.)

The takeaway? Retirement isn't being postponed; it's being radically redefined. The goal is no longer to stop working, but to make work optional. Whether that's liberation or just a prettier cage is the real question nobody's advisor can answer.

Key Takeaways

• Gen Z’s ideal retirement age is 59, but they expect to retire at 67, reflecting a gap between aspiration and expectation seen across generations.
• Compared to Baby Boomers at the same age, more Gen Zers have access to defined contribution plans like 401(k)s.
• New 401(k) features and starting to save earlier can help younger generations build larger nest eggs compared to older age groups.

While Gen Z dreams of an early retirement, they're not expecting it.

Gen Z's ideal retirement age is 59, according to a new survey from Manulife John Hancock Retirement, an insurance company.

However, this generation, which includes people aged 18 to 28, actually expects to retire much later, at age 67. A similar trend occurs across generations—peoples' ideal retirement ages were younger than their expected retirement ages.

Millennials, who are aged 29 to 43, want to retire at age 61, but don't expect to retire until age 69.

What This Means For You

All generations want to retire earlier than they expect to. For Gen Z, the gap between their ideal and expected retirement ages is the largest, but thanks to increased access to workplace retirement plans and investing early in life, they could be better prepared for retirement than older generations.

Despite Gen Z and Millennials' less-than-optimistic retirement outlook, they may be more prepared for their golden years than they think.

A Vanguard analysis found that of all the generations, Gen Z and Millennials had the greatest proportion of people who were considered prepared for retirement.

As pensions have fallen out of vogue in recent decades, Gen Z today is more likely to have access to defined contribution plans like 401(k)s than Baby Boomers did when they were young.

In other words, access to workplace retirement plans makes younger generations more likely to save for retirement.

Related Education

Other factors are working in younger people's favor, too. For example, 401(k) design has changed since the 2000s.

Due to legislation passed in 2006, 401(k) money can now be automatically invested in what is known as qualified default investment alternatives (QDIAs).

When a plan sponsor designates an investment option as a QDIA, contributions by an employee who does not select investments are automatically invested into a QDIA. Plans often choose a target-date fund, balanced fund, or a professionally managed account as a QDIA. Those types of funds put one or more professional investment managers in charge of picking securities like stocks and bonds for the fund. That relieves the worker who owns the account—but who may not want to make such decisions—from having to choose what to invest in.

Additionally, saving for retirement early can make a big difference for young people. This group has a longer investment horizon and can benefit more from the power of compound interest. (Compound interest is interest earned on your contributions plus the interest and other earnings you've already accumulated.)

Let's say a 25-year-old starts from scratch. They invest $500 at the beginning of each month and earn 8% annually on their investments. At age 65, this investor WOULD have more than $1.6 million. In contrast, someone who starts investing at age 45 would reach age 65 with roughly $286,000, under the same assumptions.