Fear Of Losing Social Connections
What is the biggest loss people experience in retirement? Pre-retirees say it is a reliable income first, and social connections second. But after they retire, loss of social connections emerges as the leading void in most retirees’ lives.
This gap between expected and actual retirement reality is significant. Only 17 percent of pre-retirees think they will miss the social connections associated with work, but 34 percent do after they retire.
An astounding 83 percent of retirees believe continuing to work keeps them young.
Revisioning Retirement
Of course, Dychtwald noted that retirement doesn’t have to be a time when people withdraw and disappear from their previous lifestyle like many fear. It can be a time to “revision” one’s life, rekindle relationships and, perhaps most importantly, a time to “discover encore careers.”
That's the good news. The reality, however, is that 62 percent of people over 50 years old have provided financial support to a family member in the last five years. The average loan is $6,200.
Financial Independence Trumps Retirement
But little of this is possible without financial independence. In fact, financial independence today is seen as more desirable place to be than in retirement, Dychtwald said, as 51 percent of people view financial freedom as their primary goal. In contrast, only 18 percent want to stop work permanently while a scant 17 percent want to leave their primary job.
But 50 percent of people Age Wave surveyed have no real “financial planning role models,” she added. And for the vast majority of Americans, reaching financial self-sufficiency isn’t an activity suited to traditional do-it-yourselfers.