Tip: Retired couples need to communicate
Financial planning is crucial to a successful retirement. But if you concentrate only on your nest egg, you are putting all your eggs in one basket.
Social planning may be just as important as financial planning, says Angela Curl, an assistant professor and researcher at the University of Missouri's School of Social Work. By social planning, Curl means being prepared for the changes in everyday routines and the benefits -- and strains -- retirement can bring to a relationship.
Social planning, for example, means discussing how much of the time a husband and wife will spend together, and what kind of leisure activities they want to do as a couple and separately. It is also important to discuss how the couple will address health problems. "The biggest thing is to have communication between the spouses to find out what both want," Curl says.
As part of a research study in which she looked at dual-earning couples, Curl examined how retirement affects the health of husbands and wives. She found that when a wife retires, the husband typically reported that his health improved, at least early on. Conversely, wives said their health was worse during the first few years of retirement, although the longer they were retired, the better they reported their health to be. Curl's study has been presented to the Gerontological Society of America.
Curl attributes the results to a sort of a slipping back into stereotypical gender roles, where the wife devotes herself to the husband, even if it means putting her own health in jeopardy. Often, this is caused because the husband's social network was centered on work, Curl says, and now he expects his wife to fill the void in his life. As for the wife, Curl says she may be adjusting to her husband's retirement needs and expectations, not her own.
Curl says, if possible, husbands and wives should consider a gradual transition to retirement by cutting back on work but not quitting completely.
Once retired, some couples are helped by finding a way to go their separate ways, at least for a little while. "There are health benefits to working just a few hours a week," she says. "I have met people who have said, 'I am working so I can escape my honey-do list.' "
