How 'Midlifers' Rank 7 Retirement Planning Priorities: Study

How complicated is retirement planning for ordinary Americans? So complicated that Transamerica went to MIT's AgeLab and asked the researchers there to determine what about that topic is, and isn't, in Americans' minds. Scientists helped Transamerica create a retirement perceptions white paper. Part of the work involved a survey of 1,184 U.S. residents ages 20 through 79 that was conducted in September 2022. Participants included people in all income and asset categories. One table compares the views of people who may well be the typical financial professional's prime prospects, people ages 40 through 59, with participants in other age groups. Survey managers asked the participants to pick the three financial topics they wanted to know more about. The results: "Midlifers" are, typically, a little young to be planning for the post-retirement strategies and frightening post-retirement expenses that financial professionals wish they'd consider. Midlifers do grasp, however, that they should be thinking about retirement. For details about what midlifers said they wanted help with, see the gallery above. Credit: Shutterstock