Hartford Life's Retirement Study: Interesting Results

UPDATE: 2/18/2012 - Some more interesting statistics on retirement in the United States according to SmartMoneyAdvice: About 62% of 65 year olds retire with less than $25,000 in assets and depend on Social Security for their retirement.  About 3% of 65 year olds are still working.

Hartford Life released an interesting study on their blog website.  New research reveals that retirement may be even better than expected for some seniors according to Beth Tracton-Bishop.  Hartford conducted the study with MIT AgeLab and they found that many retirees would have liked to retire sooner than they did.  The good news is that 77% of the respondents claimed they are happier now than they were before they retired.  This is exciting for everyone who plans on retiring someday in the future.  Gives us something to look forward to.

The Age of Opportunity study looked at the opinions and concerns of Americans both in retirement and getting close to retirement.  Most retired people are happy with their life and have a positive attitude about retirement overall.  There are few negatives that are considered by retirees which is very encouraging.  Among the retirees looked at, the more affluent ones are twice as likely as others to consider giving up a fulfilling career as a negative part of retirement.

Another interesting aspect of the study was the consideration of health at the time of retirement.  Most pre-retirees said health or medical issues are the thing they worry about the most.  Many retirees wished they had paid more attention to health-related issues to better enjoy retirement.  When they were asked how long they wanted to live, most people said they wanted to live as long as they were healthy.  3-4% of people said they wanted to live as long as their money lasts.  And that brings us to the other top concern mentioned, which is that retirees wished they had prepared better financially for retirement.  Makes sense, and hopefully knowing this will allow pre-retirees to really think about their needs come retirement age.