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Survey reveals retirees’ priorities
House, yard, grandkids rank near top but men and women disagree over main focus
| MINNEAPOLIS (July 9, 2008) – Men play with yards, women play with grandkids. That, in a nutshell, summarizes retired couples’ main retirement focuses, according to a recent national survey of 800 American adults age 60 to 74 conducted for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
The survey asked retirees to select their top priority from six everyday activities. Taking care of the yard and spending time with grandchildren were statistically tied for top billing among retired married/partnered men while spending time with grandchildren was the clear favorite among retired married/partnered women. The main retirement focus for retired males included:
The wives and partners of retired men overestimated males’ focus on the house/yard by 10 percentage points (38 percent), underestimated their focus on golfing/shopping/friends by 10 percentage points (8 percent) and accurately forecast their focus on family/grandchildren (26 percent). The main retirement focus for retired females included:
The husbands and partners of retired women underestimated females’ focus on the family/grandchildren by eight percentage points (28 percent) and overestimated their focus on volunteerism by four percentage points (7 percent). The survey found that as retired males’ incomes increase, their focus on taking care of the house and yard diminishes from 43 percent to 17 percent. Conversely, as retired females’ incomes increase, their focus on taking care of the house and yard increases from 24 percent to 32 percent. Retirees of both genders having incomes of $40,000-$79,999 are most apt to cite spending time with grandchildren or other family members as their main focus in retirement. Thirty-four percent of males and 42 percent of females in this income bracket reported grandkids/family as their main retirement priority. “Whatever one’s retirement priority, proper planning can help make it happen,” said Mark Anema, vice president of accumulation and retirement income solutions for Thrivent Financial. “Properly understanding the relationship between one’s assets, income and spending allows retirees to address their life goals with confidence.” About the Thrivent Financial Retirement Income Survey Data for this survey were collected via telephone interviews by the Discovery Research Group on behalf of Action Marketing Research. Discovery was responsible for collection of the data only. Action Marketing Research was responsible for the survey design and was solely responsible for data weighting and analysis. Interviewing took place between Dec. 1 and 13, 2007, among a nationwide cross section of 800 U.S. adults age 60 to 74 of whom 397 were men and 403 were women. Sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that they are retired, 16 percent identified themselves as partly retired and 20 percent considered themselves not retired. About Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is a Fortune 500 financial services membership organization helping nearly 3 million members achieve their financial goals and give back to their communities. Thrivent Financial and its affiliates offer a broad range of financial products and services including life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, disability income insurance, bank products and more. As a not-for-profit organization, Thrivent Financial sponsors national outreach programs and activities that support congregations, schools, charitable organizations and individuals in need. For more information, visit www.thrivent.com. -END- 200801698 |
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