Busting the Top Retirement Myths

By: Cynthia Barnett
Submitted: 2008-04-16 14:59:21
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Many people in our society are clinging to retirement myths, despite the publicity and information available.  Holding on to these myths as truth can be very harmful to your happiness in retirement.  

To help you avoid holding on to these detrimental myths, I’d like to offer my take on some of the most widely held retirement myths.

Myth #1:  Retirement is an event that occurs on the last day of your career.  This is false.  Retirement is a new phase of your life, quite unlike any previous stage of living.   Few people step from the career phase of life to the retirement phase in a single action. The truth is that there will be a transition period of moving into a new lifestyle.  The truth is that it will probably take a year or more for you to create your new retirement lifestyle.

Myth #2:  Someone or something else will take care of me in retirement.  This is unlikely today.  Whether myth is that Social Security will take care of you or that you will be taken care of by an inheritance from your parents or by your children, it is increasingly unlikely that someone else will take care of you.  Many retirees cannot subsist on Social Security alone.  Many pensions have evaporated.  Your parents now face the same economic challenges you are facing and will probably need to use much of their savings.  Your children will also face these economic challenges, will need to be attending to the needs of their children, and must be saving for their own retirement. While I don’t think Social Security will disappear in the next ten years, as some predict, I do think it likely that retirement income from the government will decrease in the future.

Myth #3:  I won’t need much to live on.  The truth of this statement depends on how you define “much.” A recent study indicated that the average retiree will spend $250,000 on medical expenses between age 65 and death.  We can expect to live another 18 to 30 years after retirement.  As the cost of many essentials for living continues to rise, you might need to be thinking seriously about how you will supplement your retirement income.

Myth #4:  Retirement is easy – it’s just one great long weekend.  For the vast majority of people, this is simply not true.  We all need meaning and purpose in our lives – this does not end when we retire from a job.  The retirement transition can be difficult and can result in depression.  Many people enter the second phase of life (retirement) with the attitude that they will spend the rest of their lives relaxing on a beach somewhere or pursuing other leisure activities.  Most discover within one to three years, that a steady diet of leisure and relaxation creates a pretty empty and shallow existence. Our rest needs to be balanced by activity; our relaxation needs to be balanced with purposeful activity.

Myth #5:  Retirement will be wonderful because I’ll spend all of my time with my spouse or significant other.  Spending all of your time with your spouse or significant other will introduce new challenges to your retirement lifestyle.  Many couples actually spend only about 20% of their time with their spouse before retiring.  They don’t realize there must be some adjustment to spending significantly more time with their spouse.  Statistics are indicating now that the highest divorce rate is with couples over age 55. 

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