It may be doom and gloom in the majority of the retirement arena, but at least one group among retirees is happy and satisfied.
That's the word from a survey from TIAA, which serves the nonprofit sector.
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Not only are its retirement plan participants happy, happy, happy, according to the study—at a 93 percent rate—but that hasn't changed much over the past 30 years.
TIAA compared results of its original Voices of Experience study, conducted in 1982, with the results of its 2016 version (when the company was still TIAA-CREF), in which more than 1,500 retired plan participants provided insights into evolving attitudes about life in retirement, as well as into all facets of retired life and the steps taken to prepare.
The TIAA study certainly runs contrary to most survey findings about retirees' and would-be retirees' fears about many aspects of retirement—from the possibility of running out of money early on to being unable to afford health care.
Retirees in the TIAA study are actually more satisfied with retirement than participants were in the original study, with 65 percent of respondents in the latest version saying that they are very satisfied with retirement. That's up from 51 percent in 1982.
They're also into early retirement in a big way.
In 1982, 39 percent of TIAA plan participants retired before age 65.
Among the retirees surveyed in 2016, more than half (54 percent) retired before age 65. And many respondents are retiring even before they had planned to: 71 percent of today's retirees say they had expected to work until age 65 or older, but only 47 percent did.
Another departure from most other industry research is about retirees continuing to work for pay.
While many studies have found that lots of folks both plan and need to keep drawing a paycheck even after "retiring," not so for the TIAA participants.
More than eight in 10 of today's TIAA retirees report they are not working for compensation, which is even more than in 1982—when 79 percent of retired TIAA participants indicated that they were not working for pay.
That has left them free to engage in activities they choose, whether those are charitable, educational, or familial. And they're not sitting idly by, watching the grass grow.
Seventy-four percent are using their time in retirement to connect with and spend time with family, while 64 percent socialize with friends on a regular basis. More than half engage in other hobbies like gardening or home improvement (56 percent) and/or travel (51 percent).
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