Retirement choice and retirement satisfaction

Retirees from major corporations who reported they retired voluntarily were compared with nonvoluntary retirees to determine the individual factors that led to a voluntary or nonvoluntary decision to retire and the impact of that voluntary/nonvoluntary decision on retirement attitudes and satisfaction. Seven firms provided mailing lists of recent retirees, and 1486 respondents completed questionnaires. Voluntary retirees tended to be persons with higher income, occupation, and health status, who had more positive feelings about retirement and more family support for their decision to retire, compared with nonvoluntary retirees. Voluntary retirees were significantly more likely to have positive attitudes and higher satisfaction in retirement than nonvoluntary retirees. However, health status and preretirement feelings about retirement were more significant predictors of retirement attitudes and satisfaction than the voluntary/nonvoluntary decision. Implications of these findings for preretirement counseling and retirement policies are discussed.