5 Key Signs You’ll Need To Work Part-Time in Retirement

Angela Mae

Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 4:05 AM 7 min read

Many people have a specific timeline for when they want to retire. For some, the goal is to retire early. For others, it’s to wait until full retirement age before collecting Social Security benefits — 66 to 67 years old, depending on date of birth.

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Not everyone ends up retiring when they want to. Even once you do retire, you might find that you need to continue working at least part-time to live comfortably. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it might not be exactly what you had in mind.

If you’re wondering whether or not you’ll need to keep working in retirement, here are some signs to watch out for.

Yuri Nosenko, a wealth management advisor at Imperial Fund Assest Management, said, “If someone is nearing retirement age without significant savings, it’s a clear warning sign that they may face financial difficulties in retirement, especially given the limited support from Social Security.”

When it comes to retirement savings, there are a couple of rules of thumb to follow:

• 4% rule: This rule suggests that retirees should be able to comfortably live on no more than 4% of their retirement account balance per year (adjusted for inflation). If you have $1 million, you should be able to live on $40,000 a year. If you have $2 million, that number gets increased to $80,000 a year.

• 10x rule: You should ideally have at least 10 times your annual income saved up by age 67. If you earned $100,000 a year, you should have $1 million. If you earned $150,000, you should have $1.5 million.

“On the other hand, even those with savings may encounter financial challenges during retirement if their savings prove insufficient to meet their future needs,” said Nosenko.

When calculating how much you have versus how much you might need for retirement, be sure to account for inflation, medical costs (including long-term care), lifestyle choices, longevity and the unexpected.

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Another key sign noted by James Yarbrough, a managing director with Stonebridge Wealth Management, is that you need to delay Social Security to maximize your benefits.

For every month that you delay collecting your Social Security benefits beyond the full retirement age, your benefits will increase incrementally — up until you turn 70. As of August 2024, the average retiree receives $1,920 a month, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA).