Workers may think delaying retirement is a solution to inadequate savings, but this may not a reliable strategy, finds Kiplinger’s Personal Finance reporter Eleanor Laise in her September 12, 2012 column.

More than one out of four workers now plan to retire at age 70 or later, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That’s up from 16% in the pre-crisis days of 2007. Just 8% of workers expect to retire before age 60, down from 17% in 2007.

But there’s a jarring disconnect between workers’ expectations and retirement reality. Fully half of the retirees surveyed by the EBRI this year said they left the workforce earlier than planned, and just 8% of them said that positive factors — such as the ability to afford early retirement — prompted the move. For the vast majority of early retirees, negative circumstances, such as company downsizing, played a role.

Please take heed. In today’s harsh economic times, there is a greater need for long-term care insurance ownership than ever before.