Traditional retirement possibly becoming a thing of the past

It may be time to redefine retirement.

A new survey of American workers from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found that 82% of the respondents age 60 and older either are, or expect to keep working past the age of 65. Among all workers, regardless of age, 20% expect to keep on working as long as possible in their current job or a similar one.

The days of the gold-watch retirement where we have an office party and maybe some punch and cookies and never work again are more mythical than a reality.Very few workers actually envision that type of retirement and many plan to keep on working part-time even after they retire.

It even raises the question is retirement the right word.

Across all ages, many workers worry that they will be unable to save enough to last their lifetime. Outliving investments and savings was the top retirement concern for 44% of all respondents. And one-third of all workers believe their standard of living will diminish once they stop working.

Forty-plus age  represent the critical mass of Generation X. They're in the sandwich years, the time of life when most are likely juggling work, kids, and aging parents. They probably don't have a lot of free time and they also were very affected by the recession.

Only 10% of respondents in their 40s said they were confident they would be able to fully retire in comfort.

Many younger Gen Xers doubt they'll get the Social Security payments currently forecast in their benefits statements.

The only option is to save more to make up the difference.To identify money that they can save, they have to track their spending, and using apps on their phones fits perfectly with their lifestyle.

 For Gen Xers who are closer to traditional retirement age, and who have grown children have the wonderful opportunity to shovel money into their retirement accounts once the kids are out of college and out of the house. But, people seem to want to remodel the kitchen and buy the fancy car they have been putting off, but this is the final hurrah for retirement savings and they really need to make the most of it .

There are some rules of thumb whatever a worker's age.

For instance, they should stop guessing how much they need to retire and actually run the numbers. From there you can build a plan.Factor in everything from everyday living expenses ... (to) taxes and inflation.

Such strategizing is necessary, even if you never plan to stop working.

Planning not to retire is not a viable retirement strategy.At some point in our lives we'll all stop working.

(Gen X is the generation born after the Western World War II baby boom describing a generational change from the Baby Boomers. Baby boomers are people born during the demographic post–World War II baby boom , approximately between the years 1946 and 1964.   )