At 57, she doesn't think too much about retirement. But she does know that when retirement time comes around, chances are she might need to keep working to pay for her health insurance.
Rising health-care costs and dwindling pensions are changing the way people perceive retirement and how they plan for it. Only 20 percent of American workers are covered by a pension plan, according to Jay Racz, a financial adviser with Waddell and Reed in Riverside.
It is more cost effective for businesses to have employees contribute portions of their salaries to a 401(k) plan, instead of contributing to an employee pension plan.
The flip side of not having a well maintained company pension plan is that the retirement burden is now placed on the individual, said Karl Hicks, a certified financial planner with the Leonard Financial Group in Riverside.
"For many of us, Social Security is no longer any kind of security blanket," Hicks said. "It is the responsibility of the employee to make the decision to save and to invest properly during the working years so they can have a nest egg during the age of retirement."
Still, Hicks said many of his clients continue to work out of love for a particular career or vocation. The traditional idea of retirement may need an overhaul as well.
"Retirement came from the idea of working for a corporation and leaving work at 75 and spending the golden years fishing," Hicks said. "A lot of people, once they reach the age of retirement, don't necessarily want to stop."
Fellow Sun City resident Mona Woodruff, 66, went back to work three months ago at the Menifee Valley Community Cupboard & Thrift Shop. She previously worked on a nonpaid, volunteer basis.
"My grandson was struggling to get his college tuition going, so that's why I decided to go ahead and be an employee instead of a volunteer," Woodruff said.
Woodruff moved to Riverside County six years ago after working in the defense industry for 27 years in Northern California. She said she is grateful for her former employer's health insurance policy, which partly covers costly prescription drugs.
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