Posted On August 12, 2015

Retirement Ups and Downs

Reprinted with permission

A survey of some of the first baby boomers to reach retirement revealed that while most are content with their decision to leave the workplace, many found the transition to retirement to be emotionally challenging.

Earlier this year, Ameriprise Financial released results of its Retirement Triggers study, a survey of 1,000 newly retired adults aged 60-73 who had retired within the last five years.

Following are some survey highlights:

  • The most-cited reasons for retiring were “I decided it was time to enjoy my life” or “I no longer wanted to work” (51 percent); “I reached my retirement savings goal/my adviser helped me understand I could retire” (17 percent); and “I was forced to retire by my employer/was offered early retirement incentives or lost my full-time job” (16 percent).
  • Three of four survey respondents said they were “very satisfied” with their retirement lifestyle.
  • Nearly one in three respondents said nothing about the transition to retirement was difficult, but others said the hardest thing about retiring was making emotional adjustments such as losing connections with colleagues (37 percent), getting used to a different routine (32 percent) and finding purposeful ways to pass the time (22 percent).
  • Despite emotional challenges, 65 percent of retirees surveyed said they fell into a new routine fairly quickly, and about half said they had expected to have more free time once they retired.
  • Forty-three percent of respondents said they were having more fun in retirement than they had anticipated.
  • The majority (57 percent) of respondents reported being “very satisfied” with their financial situation, and 37 percent reported being “somewhat satisfied.”
  • About one in 10 respondents said they returned to work in some capacity, but most of those working for pay said they were not working for the money but rather because the work seemed like an interesting opportunity or because they wanted intellectual stimulation.
  • Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of recently retired baby boomers said they felt stressed about retirement leading up to the decision, but only one in four said they remained stressed after having been retired for some time.

Commenting on the survey findings, Marcy Keckler, vice president of financial advice strategy at Ameriprise, said the importance of preparing emotionally for retirement often gets overshadowed by the many financial decisions that need to be made. In reality, she said, emotional and financial preparation should go hand-in-hand.

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