The questions that workers grapple with as they look ahead
to retirement range from the financial to the philosophical. Some lend
themselves to straightforward answers: Yes you can—or no you can’t—afford to
keep your vacation home as well as your primary residence. Others are more
open-ended and may take years of trial and error to resolve.
Here are four questions that loomed large in two focus
groups that research firm Hearts & Wallets conducted in New York last week
with people ages 53 through 70 who indicated they were at least five years away
from stopping full-time work.
What’s the Goldilocks
age for me to retire? Many workers are fearful of quitting—or getting
pushed out of the workplace—before they have enough money to live comfortably
for the rest of their days. But there’s also concern about waiting too long and
missing the sweet spot when they still have the physical ability and good
health for the activities on their retirement wish list.
Should I buy
long-term-care insurance? Whether in a nursing home, assisted-care
facility or at home, extended care can be a retirement budget-buster. But
long-term-care policies aren’t necessarily the answer. The premiums can be
thousands of dollars a year—and insurers have been hiking charges for people
who bought long-term-care insurance years ago.
When should I collect
Social Security? Depending on a person’s year of birth, there’s an age
at which he or she will get “normal” or “full” benefits based on a career-long
work record. But really, it’s a continuum: People can collect retirement
benefits as early as age 62 or delay to age 70, with the monthly check getting
bigger the longer they wait.
One man of 66 said he has started collecting because he
wants the money now and would rather invest it himself than wait to get a
larger monthly check. But other panelists said they have heard conflicting
advice and are confused about when to collect.
Unlike some other big retirement questions, the decision
about when to start Social Security lends itself to a straightforward analysis
based on assumptions about life expectancy, marital status and other factors.
There are a variety of paid and free online tools that can
be helpful.
Who will the “retired
me” be? While the thought of having too little money for retirement is
scary, so too is the question of how to spend one’s time and maintain a sense
of purpose and identity.
“I enjoy working,” including the experience of working with
younger colleagues, said one man of 54. He is thinking he may transition from
full-time to part-time work in about five years.
A woman who is 66 said many people spend more time planning
their summer vacations than planning what they are going to do when they
retire. She and her husband are laying the groundwork for a retirement that may
start in another five years.
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