Rudri Patel, the chief retirement expert at GOBankingRates, spends her working days grappling with the challenges facing American workers as they save and invest for retirement.
Outside of this role, Patel is the co-founder and co-editor of The Sunlight Press, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit digital literary journal that publishes creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, book and film reviews, photography, and reflections by artists on their craft.
“My first love is writing, both fiction and nonfiction,” Patel told ThinkAdvisor. “Before my current work at GOBankingRates, I was immersed in the legal world as an attorney, litigating on bankruptcy issues, primarily. I enjoyed that work and the work I do now, but I always felt compelled to be a good literary citizen. So, about 10 years ago, I co-founded Sunlight Press alongside Beth Burrell. It's been wonderful, and I'm proud to say that we pay our authors.”
This personal role may seem removed from Patel’s day job, but she painted a different picture in a recent interview and blog post. Many working Americans tie their identity to their careers, Patel observed, and while that can prepare them financially for retirement, that’s only half the battle.
“One part of the retirement crisis that many people don’t talk about is the emotional aspect and lifestyle planning for your time in retirement,” Patel said. “I was struck by a recent survey from the Journal of Financial Planning, which found just 11% of baby boomers feel ‘emotionally ready’ for retirement. That’s a big deal and a real challenge for the financial planning community to confront.”
More emphasis needs to be placed on planning for maintaining social connections, daily routines and meaningful purpose before retirement. In Patel's case, that means staying engaged in literary endeavors.
“These elements help to ensure we’re emotionally ready — not just financially stable,” Patel said. “This lack of emotional readiness is likely to persist, or even worsen, as people are living longer and postponing retirement.”
Positive Retirement Reality
Most people reaching retirement age, she observed, seek to remain independent and not rely on others for financial or personal care.
In some cases, Patel said, those contemplating retirement may work longer because they don’t want to be a burden on family members or friends. Others may keep on working because they don’t know what else to do with their time.
Emotional readiness, then, requires confronting these challenges and doing what she herself didn’t do when she began planning for retirement.
“Your clients have to think about their retirement lifestyle while they're still working,” she advised. “They need to reflect on a daily routine for when they’re not working, and evaluate how they want to spend their time and who they want to spend it with.”
The happiest retirees, she said, use their newfound freedom to explore — schedule exercise time, meet with friends or enroll in a hobby class. Likewise, many happy retirees eased into their lifestyle adjustments, having set goals around interests and passions before retirement.
"It’s also a good idea for late-career workers to try a few different routines until they find what fits," Patel recommended, "and to let people know proactively that they are transitioning into retirement."
Ideally, Patel said, an “emotional retirement plan” is about creating a positive vision for what clients want their retirement to look like. Without this vision, the financial side is going to be even harder to figure out.
Negative Retirement Reality
A holistic retirement plan, Patel added, also requires confronting serious apprehensions.
“In my case, I think a lot about the challenges posed by increasing longevity,” Patel said. “More specifically, I really worry about people’s ability to source and afford long-term care during retirement. As people get older and face chronic or terminal illness, that’s a huge challenge.”
There’s no silver bullet answer to this obstacle, she noted, apart, perhaps, from being fabulously wealthy. But even that doesn’t ensure that the challenges of sourcing caregiving won’t come with major stress for clients and their families.
“I live in Arizona, and there’s a healthy retirement community here, but it is just so expensive to access that care,” Patel said. “I did some basic research recently and figured out that the average living center with continuing care opportunities starts at $7,000 per month and goes up and up from there. Again, that’s a huge challenge.”
Patel urged financial advisors serving clients in their 40s and 50s to help them address these scenarios sooner than later. Perhaps they need to buy a long-term care policy or guaranteed income annuities. Likely, they will need to have frank conversations with family members about caregiving needs and expectations, especially as younger generations have their own retirement preparations to consider.
“Speaking about illness and mortality isn’t easy, but it is essential for building that overall plan for what retirement is going to look like,” Patel said. “It’s always fun talking about retirement in terms of the travel, family time and new hobbies, but that’s only part of the picture."
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