"I'm a few months short of age 70, and I haven't even applied yet," Niskanen said.
The market's slump has accelerated the trend toward working longer, economists said. About 54 percent of Americans aged 55 to 64 have at least some of their retirement funds in stocks, according to a September 2001 report by the Investment Company Institute.
"The sudden turn for the worse in people's portfolios has made the idea of financing two decades of leisure out of the question for society as a whole," said Clare Hushbeck, a labor economist.
"That number is going to go up," Hushbeck said. "There will be more in the future working primarily for the financial aspect." Bern Beatty doesn't figure to be one of them. The "over 70" accounting professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said his finances are in great shape. Beatty, who wakes up at 4am to get some work in before walking his dogs and sometimes grades papers as late as 10pm, just can't slow down.
"I absolutely have no idea how I could spend the time more pleasantly doing other things," Beatty said. "I don't like cruises. I don't like golf. And if I stayed at home my wife would get very tired of me."
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