Some Americans Think They'll Work Until They're Dead More than a third of middle-class Americans believe they will never retire and will work until they're too sick to do so or dead, according to a recent poll. Wells Fargo interviewed 1,000 Americans aged 25 to 75 with household incomes between $25,000 and $99,000. Along with the 37 percent who said they'll never retire, another 34 percent said they believed that they will not retire until age 80. That's up from 25 percent just two years ago. And one-third of those surveyed said they believe their primary source of retirement income will come from social security. That's probably because almost half of those people said they don't have a written retirement plan. And investment isn't their answer. Only 24 percent said they're confident in the stock market, and 45 percent said the stock market would not benefit them.