Americans who say they expect to “never retire” are more likely than others to score low on a measure of financial knowledge, a new study shows.

In a national survey, 20% of those who missed all three financial knowledge questions said they expected they would never retire, compared to 12% who answered all questions correctly, who said they’d likely work well past retirement age.

The study also found that those who were overconfident in their financial knowledge (and those whose low levels of confidence reflected their knowledge) were more likely to say they would never retire.

The findings, combined with other research, suggest that many people who say they will never retire aren’t saying that because they love their jobs and want to continue working indefinitely, said Sherman Hanna, co-author of the study and professor of consumer sciences at The Ohio State University.

“If you’re not knowledgeable about finances, it suggests that you don’t know what your financial situation is, and you may have no idea when you can retire,” Hanna said.

“Saying they’re never going to retire may be for some people a way of saying they have failed to prepare for retirement.”

The study was published recently in the journal Financial Services Review.

The findings have important implications for the way experts evaluate how many Americans are adequately prepared for retirement.

Many analyses of the projected retirement adequacy of American workers assume that those saying they will never retire will end up retiring at about age 70. But in a previous study, Hanna and his colleagues found that many of these “never retire” workers will actually drop out of the workforce at a much younger age—suggesting they might stop earning a steady income before they’ve done enough to shore up their finances.

“It means our projections of the proportion of workers on track for an adequate retirement might be too optimistic,” Hanna said. “Many of those who say they will never retire may not know enough about their finances and are not working toward a financially successful retirement.”

The researchers used data from the 2016 and 2019 Surveys of Consumer Confidence, sponsored by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. Their final sample included 4,607 households in which the head of the household was aged 35 to 60 and was working full time.

The three questions in the SCF that measured financial knowledge—called the “Big Three” by researchers—relate to compound interest, real rates of return and risk diversification.

Findings in this study found that the more questions participants got wrong, the more likely they were to say they expected to never retire.

The survey also asked participants to rate their own financial knowledge on a scale from 0 (no knowledge) to 10 (high knowledge).

Of those who said they weren’t financially knowledgeable (levels 0, 1 or 2), 30% expected to never retire, more than twice the 14% of those who believed they were very knowledgeable (levels 9 and 10).

The researchers also rated the financial confidence of participants—and whether they were overconfident or underconfident—by comparing their subjective ratings of their financial knowledge with their actual scores on the financial knowledge questions.

Results showed that 17% of those who were overconfident in their financial knowledge expected to never retire, higher than the 12% who had appropriately high confidence in their financial knowledge.

The findings suggest that financial planners, counselors and educators need to have a clear understanding of what it means when people say they expect to never retire, Hanna said.

“We need to evaluate those who don’t expect to retire to ensure they have the appropriate level of financial knowledge and confidence to help them make plans for their post-working life,” he said.

Other co-authors of the study were Zezhong Zhang and Lei Xu, both doctoral students at Ohio State.

Amazon MGM Studios will soon join the Motion Picture Association, the lobbying arm of Hollywood’s major studios announced.

The Seattle-based tech and retail giant—which distributes content via its theatrical arm, Amazon MGM, and its streaming service, Prime Video—will officially become the seventh member of the MPA on Oct. 1. Amazon backed the MPA’s anti-piracy efforts as a board member of the organization’s Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.

Amazon is the second tech company after Netflix to gain MPA representation, a further sign of Hollywood’s ongoing effort to embrace new ways of reaching audiences—mainly streaming.

The MPA—which has historically advocated for traditional movie factories making features for theatrical release—made waves in 2019 when it added Netflix to its ranks.

In addition to Netflix, the organization currently reps Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery.

“The MPA is the global voice for a growing and evolving industry, and welcoming Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios to our ranks will broaden our collective policymaking and content protection efforts on behalf of our most innovative and creative companies,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman and chief executive of the MPA, in a statement.

“MPA studios fuel local economies, drive job creation, enrich cultures, and bolster communities everywhere they work. With Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios among our roster of extraordinary members, the MPA will have an even larger voice for the world’s greatest storytellers.”

Amazon, which burst onto the movie scene in 2015 with Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq,” is known for releasing titles such as “Manchester by the Sea,” “Challengers,” “American Fiction,” “Saltburn” and “One Night in Miami …”

The company cemented its presence in the motion picture space when it purchased legacy movie and TV studio MGM in 2022. Before the acquisition, MGM was a member of the MPA from 1928 until 2005.

“Amazon’s mission is to entertain customers around the world with compelling film and television,” said Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, in a statement.

“In order to do that, we must support storytellers, while also helping to sustain a robust entertainment industry that works for both studios and our creative partners.”

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