The latest annual Wells Fargo Retirement Survey found that three out of ten middle-class Americans say they will need to “work until at least 80,” in order to live comfortably in retirement. More than half of pre-retired Americans (53%) say they are not confident they will have saved enough for the life they want in retirement. That’s up from 42% in one year, a hefty 26% increase. Sobering. What can be done?

The conventional wisdom on how to help individual investors and retirement-plan members includes things like:

• Start early so you put time on your side.
• Pay yourself first.
• Make sure your asset allocation is appropriate for you age and risk tolerance.

All good advice, but usually recommended for people with many years until retirement. Well, now that the runway has gotten longer, the advice to those who used to be “pre-retired” may be no different: Forget income distribution; stay focused on prudent accumulation.

These statistics are real, they’re current, and they’re emblematic of the way the world is changing for anyone contemplating retirement – and what “retirement” means in general. Maybe rather than visions of surfboards in the sunset, the new way to get to them should be the same way we got to them when they were working in mid-life. Because as far as their working years are concerned, that’s where many of them still are.