Different Visions

I haven't touched on what happens in a marriage when retirement time arrives.  It has become more complicated than it used to be.  Up until about 1990, statistics show that husbands and wives retired together (at the same time) and that most often the husband retired from a career whereas the wife retired from a job.  His decision to retire seemed to trigger her decision.

How the world has changed since that time.  Staggered retirement is becoming the norm for today's couples.  Men and women have careers and women are more likely than ever before to have pensions to consider in terms of the timing of their retirement.  Baby boomer couples are heading into retirement quite differently than their parents did as a result.  Most often now, one person retires, goes through their own adjustment while their partner continues to work.  Then at some point later, the other person retires.

Some studies have shown that retiring together actually makes for less conflict at the time of retirement.  However, there hasn't been all that much research on the boomers on this issue yet so I think we'll have to wait and see what the impact of staggered retirement is.  I do know that the divorce rate around the time of retirement is quite low, although here in Canada it has been on the increase lately.

However you and your partner (if you have one) plan to approach this issue, keeping the lines of communication open at all times is the best approach.  I've got lots of ideas about this issue so come back and visit my blog - there'll be more posts on this issue over the next little while.