Perceptions of Retired Public School Teachers Regarding Retirement: Implications for Preretirement Planning

The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions about retirement and suggestions regarding retirement planning from retired public school educators. The writer\u27s primary interest was in developing a data base regarding the non-financial issues of retirement leading to the design of a preretirement preparation planning program. A random sample of 393 retired North Dakota teachers from a population of 3930 was surveyed. Seventy percent (274) returned the eight-page survey. The sample had the following characteristics: average age--73 years, average length of retirement--10.65 years, 74 percent were female, 72 percent lived in their own home, 37 percent had moved since retiring, 46 percent were married, 34.5 percent were widowed, and 11.6 percent had never married. A total of 559 comments were volunteered by respondents regarding relocation, concerns and attractions, and for the hypothetical context of what would I do differently. The survey sought information about retirement lifestyle, preparation, employer\u27s responsibility, commencement time for program components, retirement activities and volunteering, reasons for retiring, satisfaction on seven retirement elements, residence and relocation, and general advice. Results suggest that a successful retirement lifestyle is a reflection of attitude and expectancies and that these can be influenced by preretirement planning. Preretirement planning is desired and desirable on both financial and non-financial issues. Most issues should begin to be addressed before the educator has reached the age of forty-five. A retirement preparedness scale was developed covering twenty-seven retirement and general aging issues. While financial preparedness provides one with the ability to retire, preparedness on non-financial issues provides one with a higher quality of life in retirement