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Many thanks to everyone who completed the survey.
 The
survey shows that 80% of you who completed the survey are
enjoying your retirement or even think it’s fantastic. However
12% think it’s merely OK and 8% aren’t enjoying it or even hate
it. So, overwhelmingly, you think that retirement is a great
place to be and we hope that Laterlife is helping you to relish
it.
For those who aren’t enjoying it (and those that are too)
this month’s new
Guide to Planning Retirement may provide some useful
food for thought. Also in the very near future we are going to
be announcing something which we think is very exciting and
which can significantly add to the enjoyment of retirement for
all of us. So watch your email for that announcement.
Back to the results of the survey. You’re obviously a very
active group as well: 42% are working part-time, with a
significant number working in the voluntary sector, and 85% of
you have set about improving your fitness in retirement. An
active lifestyle is obviously very important to you and helping
you to enjoy retirement.
Financially, a balanced picture emerged with as many reporting
being better off than expected in retirement, as reported being
worse off than you thought you would be.
Contrary to some popular thinking, only 5% reported a decline in
retirement in the relationship with your partner, which reflects
the fact that you’re enjoying life!
When we decided to do this retirement survey we set out to do
something of general interest but because of our involvement in
running retirement workshops we decided to ask a question to
find out just how many laterlife newsletter readers had actually
been on a workshop (just under 25% in fact). What was
fascinating was the insight this has given into the impact of
going on a workshop.
We discovered that the above percentages change significantly
between those that have been on a retirement workshop and those
that haven’t:
The survey showed a 30% increase in the level of enjoying
retirement for those who have been on a workshop. In particular,
you were much more likely to say retirement was fantastic,
rather than just enjoyable, if you have been on a workshop. At
the other end of the spectrum it was almost exclusively those
that hadn’t been on a workshop who said they weren’t enjoying
retirement or hated it.
In terms of relationships, 10% of you who hadn’t been on a
workshop said that your relationship had deteriorated, whilst
everyone who had been on a workshop said that their relationship
was better or the same.
Financially, those of you who had been on a workshop got far
fewer surprises than those who hadn’t; you found that your
finances were much as expected. On the other hand, 25% of you
who hadn’t done a workshop found that your finances were worse
than you expected.
It does seem, therefore, that attending a Planning for
Retirement workshop enhances retirement and has measurable
positive benefits. At Laterlife, we’ve long believed that to be
the case and it’s now confirmed!
Some of the specific comments
Best and worst things about retirement
The most used word in the comments about retirement was
‘freedom’. “The freedom to do what I want when I want”. This was
often qualified by “but I don’t have enough time: I’ve never
been busier”.
On the down side, even if people were enjoying their retirement,
the most frequent comments were about the difficulties of living
on a reduced income and having to watch the pennies much more.
Comments about periods of boredom and missing the social
interaction with work colleagues also figured regularly.
A small selection of comments about the best and worst things in
retirement:
The Best
Doing things at your own pace, not having to rush.
Doing loads of things I never had time for before
Time together and with our grandchildren
Time to meet friends
Lack of deadlines and performance pressures
Not having to cram all leisure activities into weekends
Lack of stress
Shopping in the week
Holidays in term time
No alarm clocks
Lack of pressure
Being able to please yourself
No more working by the clock
Not stuck in an office when the sun shines
Contacting long lost friends
Peace of mind
Free prescriptions
Not having to live life by Government targets
Good to avoid rush hour travel
No regimented rules and regulations
Being able to be spontaneous
Not commuting
I’ve been surprised at how well my husband and I get along
Hadn’t realised how wonderful it was to go away in the winter
when no one else can
Best thing that has ever happened to me
The Worst
I no longer have any real purpose
Took some months to come to terms with solitude of retirement
Such a shame my husband isn’t alive to share new experiences
Life became meaningless, purposeless. I am now suffering from
depression.
Miss purpose and direction of work
We are getting on each other’s nerves
Worst is just feeling older and sometimes feeling less valued by
society
Not having a structured life, which makes me more disorganised
Finding where I fit in
As a widow the worst is weekend evenings when everything going
on is for couples
and TV is boring
Missing the contact with work
Lack of mental stimulation
Mixed Views
Freedom but periods of boredom
Some weeks are enjoyably busy but others much less so.
Best thing is every day’s a Saturday! Worst thing is daytime TV!
We'll have some further analysis of the survey results next
month. In the meantime don't forget to have a look at this
month's
Guide to Planning Retirement.
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