Protect your marriage. When to retire, where to live and how to pay for it are often points of conflict for married couples. The majority of married couples ages 46 to 75 disagree about their expected retirement ages (62%) and what their top source of retirement income will be (55%), according to a Richard Day Research survey of 648 married couples commissioned by Fidelity Investments. And even once you both agree to retire, adjusting to a new life in which you are together all day, every day, can be difficult, and new routines must be forged.
Stay involved. In 2001, a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by SunAmerica Financial Group and Age Wave found that many people viewed retirement as a continuance of what life was (40%), and 22% viewed it as a winding down of life. Now, most people (54%) see retirement as an opportunity for a whole new chapter in life.
"People want to travel and learn new things and continue to have adventures," says Ken Dychtwald, the president of the consulting firm Age Wave and author of "With Purpose: Going From Success to Significance in Work and Life." "Retirees don't want to move to a golf course or condominium community, but move to a college town, which is where the action is."
Working in some capacity is often part of the plan. Almost two-thirds (65%) of the survey respondents say they would ideally like to include some work in retirement, ranking the "stimulation and satisfaction" they get from their jobs above money as the top reason they want to work during retirement. "You get so much from work in addition to the paycheck," says Quinn. "It's a lifestyle choice."
Give something back. Many people approaching retirement have knowledge and skills they would like to pass on to the next generation. Some people would also like to leave a legacy for their children or the community that supported them throughout their career. One way to do this is to continue to work or volunteer in some capacity.
Flexible scheduling. When you have some money coming in from other sources such as Social Security, a pension or your savings, you can afford to work less. Many people say they want to work part time (25%) or cycle between periods of work and leisure (36%) in retirement, Harris Interactive found. Only 30% of those surveyed never want to work for pay again, and just 4% want to work full time in retirement.
"When people leave their career jobs, most of them don't leave the labor force at the same time," says Quinn. "They move to some other job that is of shorter duration than their career job, perhaps working three days a week or six months a year, doing something completely different." If you need to put in only 20 hours per week, delaying retirement doesn't sound so bad.
This article was reported by Emily Brandon for U.S. News & World Report.
