There are some surprises in store for Canadian boomers approaching retirement.
According to the 2015 RBC Retirement Myths & Realities Poll, already-retired boomers (aged 50+) identified three retirement realities that contradict the expectations of their pre-retiree counterparts:
- Retirees don’t miss their paycheques from work as much as pre-retirees expect to, by a margin of almost two to one (26% compared to 49%). What retirees do miss most is their social time with colleagues at work (51%).
- While simply “taking time for myself” is how the majority of retirees (72%) report they are actually spending their time, travel tops the “expect to do in retirement” list for a similar majority of pre-retirees.
- Close to half (43%) of retirees didn’t get to choose their retirement date, in contrast to the 80% of pre-retirees who expect to have that choice. Retirees cited several reasons why they left their working lives behind before they were ready to do so, including health, the need to provide caregiving to someone else and employer’s request.
Read: Many Canadians retire earlier than planned
“Each of these realities has retirement planning implications for Canadians, including how they will affect the lifestyle they hope to achieve when they are no longer working,” says Yasmin Musani, head of retirement and successful aging strategies with RBC. “They raise important questions for boomers to consider about their life goals and priorities as they approach retirement. For example, ‘What social network will you have in retirement?’ and ‘How will you spend your time?'”
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