Living in Retirement

Progress Toward Financial Goals

The graph below shows that for several key financial objectives, retirees have had substantial success, reporting "some" or "a great deal" of progress.

Retirees' optimism is likely correlated with economic expansion. In mid-2018, we asked retirees how the economy will be performing in 12 months, and 26% believed it would be growing robustly. This optimism more than doubled since 2015, when a similar study found that only 11% believed in a growing economy. Still, some retirees are pessimistic, believing that the economy has peaked and is headed for a downturn. In 2015, 16% expected the economy to be in recession 12 months out. By 2018, the number had edged up to 20%.

Income in Retirement Is Top of Mind

We asked retirees to rank five financial objectives. Interestingly, predictability of income far exceeds leaving a legacy. The top two objectives were nearly tied: "having guaranteed income later in life" and "having retirement income that is predictable," were ranked first or second in importance by most. Likewise, the ability to leave a bequest was ranked last.

Interestingly, despite wanting predictability or even a guarantee of income, retirees are skeptical of deferred annuities. Three-quarters described them as "not very attractive" or "not attractive at all" and only 5% described them as "very attractive."

Post-Retirement Experience Quells Pre-Retirement Anxiety

Not surprisingly, retirement can turn out differently than expected for many retirees, with some concerns diminishing and others increasing. We asked respondents to think about certain concerns and tell us how concerned they were about them prior to retirement compared with now. For the most part, pre-retirement concerns diminish slightly after retirement, with two notable exceptions. "My health" is the top concern before retirement and remains so afterward, with 69% reporting they were and still are "somewhat" or "very" concerned. And while concerns about physical health don't diminish after retirement, concerns about financial health do. Fully 65% reported that they had been somewhat or very worried about whether their assets would last after retirement, but that concern dropped to 53% after retirement.

Pre- and Post-Retirement Concerns*

Top and Bottom Three Advice Attributes*

About Our Retiree Research

T. Rowe Price engaged NMG Consulting to conduct a national study of 3,005 adults aged 21 and older who have never retired and are currently contributing to a 401(k) plan or are eligible to contribute and have a balance of at least $1,000. We also included an oversample of 1,005 adults who have retired with a rollover IRA or left-in-plan 401(k) balance. The online survey was conducted from July 24 to August 14, 2018. This is the fourth in a series of participant surveys, and data elements from prior surveys are used in this report for comparison purposes.

For more information on this and our other extensive research on retirement savings and spending, please contact your T. Rowe Price representative.