Navigating a Precarious Dual Transition: The Lived Experience of Early Retirement and Full-Time Caregiving Amid Financial Vulnerability

By 2030, older workers (55–64) will comprise a quarter of the global labour force, making their retirement a critical policy concern. Yet, a gap remains regarding how informal caregiving shapes early retirement for economically vulnerable “ALICE” (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed) populations. This qualitative descriptive study explores this intersection in Hong Kong through a theoretical framework integrating linked lives to highlight relational drivers of workforce exit, cumulative disadvantage to contextualize lifelong financial precarity, and the resource-based dynamic perspective to explain how fluctuating resources impact adjustment. A purposive subset of eight primary caregivers was selected for separate analysis from a broader study of 51 working-poor early retirees to specifically examine the intense physical and economic strains unique to full-time eldercare. We identified five themes through reflexive thematic analysis of interview data: (1) caregiving as a primary driver of early retirement; (2) adjusting to the loss of work and value; (3) life on standby; (4) anxiety over the future; and (5) multi-layered resources for adjustment. These findings illustrate how deeply caregiving can complicate the retirement transition for this demographic. Moving forward, a multilevel approach—integrating individual and environmental resources—can help address these complex challenges and inform practice and policy, such as strengthening community-level supports and statutory leave.