Will your retirement dreams align with retirement realities?

Let’s face it – if you asked a bunch of folks what they think retirement looks like, more than a few would imagine it involves a sunny beach, a cool tropical drink, feet up, and full relaxation.

And maybe it does. But a new U.S. study has found that in reality, retirement isn’t always what we expect it will be.

An article in Yahoo! Finance, citing research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), notes that retired American seniors find they are “wrestling with spending worries, forced retirement and an identity crisis.”

EBRI’s Lori Lucas tells Yahoo! Finance that “We expect retirement is going to be one thing and then when you actually get into retirement, as your priorities have changed, you’re not as excited about doing things that you thought you were going to be excited about.”

The survey, the article continues, found that “fewer than one in four Americans think their current retirement lifestyle aligns with what they planned for their retirement to be.”

Travel, the story notes, takes a back seat to health and wellness as a top concern – 81 per cent put it first, with “quality time spent with family and friends” next at 68 per cent.

“You’re more excited about the quality of your relationships, and things that are not going to cost as much as we thought they were going to cost,” Lucas tells Yahoo! Finance.

The article also notes that after a lifetime of saving for retirement, there is a genuine reluctance to start tapping into the nest egg – even though that’s exactly why we saved it!

Six of 10 respondents in the EBRI survey “wanted to spend down only a small portion of assets, spend none at all, or grow their assets,” the article tells us.

Two other bits of advice the article provides are these:

• Once you are in your 60s, retirement could come at any time – even before you plan it. “Layoffs, health or other reasons” can be behind an “unplanned” exit from the worforce, the article says.
• There can be an “identity crisis” for retirees if they are leaving a job that they really felt defined them as people. Even retired people get asked what they did when they were working, which “almost makes it (retirement) seem like a less important existence,” the article adds.

The article says it is important to “fill your time with meaningful activities to give yourself that sense of purpose that you might lose” once you are retired. Another option is to ease into full retirement via retiring part-time – keeping busy with consulting, part-time work or “professional mentorships,” the article concludes.

Save with SPP, out of the full time work force for a seventh year, can attest to these latter points. You need to do something to replace the 40 hours – more if you count commuting time – that you’ve spent earning money to support your family. New interests, and reviving old ones, are among the keys to making your time more meaningful.

Fun is often expensive, however. Be sure you have a regular plan to save money for retirement. If you lack a plan, and really aren’t sure how to go about starting one, take a look at the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. You can start building an SPP nest egg slowly, and then ramp it up as you earn more. And when it’s time to give up your parking spot at work, SPP will help turn those saved, well-invested dollars into a stream of income to help finance your retirement “to-do” list. SPP, after all, has been in the business of securing retirement futures for 35 years.

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