When working until 70 is not enough

But here's some discouraging news from the Employee Benefit Research Institute: For about one-third of working-age households (those between ages 30 and 59 in 2007), working until age 70 won't enough to provide adequate income in retirement.

"It would be comforting from a public policy standpoint to assume that merely working to age 70 would be a panacea to the significant challenges of assuring retirement income adequacy, but this may be a particularly risky strategy, especially for the vulnerable group of low-income workers," said Jack VanDerhei, research director of EBRI, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research outfit.

Working longer can help, for sure. EBRI's Retirement Security Projection Model indicates that nearly 64% households aged 50?59 in 2007 would be "ready" for retirement at age 70, compared with 52% those households if they were to retire at age 65.