Retirement boosts happiness and health
Retirement is likely to improve your overall happiness and health, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, an American non-profit research organisation.
Seems obvious, right? Many people spend their whole working lives waiting for the rest and relaxation retirement brings, but for others, retirement can be a time where life satisfaction declines, health deteriorates, and money problems begin. This prompted researchers to crunch the data to find an evidence-based answer to the question: “Does retirement improve health and life satisfaction?”
After analysing the data form the Health and Retirement Study, which contains in-depth interviews with 20,000 Americans over 50 on every aspect of their lives, the resounding answer is yes. Retirement does bring an immediate boost in life satisfaction, with the researchers also finding strong evidence that retirement can also improve physical and mental health – although those benefits take a few years to show.
“Our findings are consistent with the view that retirement is a good time in life that many people look forward to,” says Aspen Gorry, one of the study’s authors. "People immediately report being happier on average and less depressed."
This sentiment did not fade over time either.
“The most surprising findings from our study were the positive long-run effects both in subjective wellbeing, or happiness, and in the objective health measures,” says Gorry. “For subjective wellbeing, most studies find that happiness returns to a baseline level so that life events only have temporary effects. Our findings for retirement contrast with that typical result.”
The paper also notes that four or more years after people retired, they began showing “significant improvements” in their health. Keep in mind that it wasn’t the simple act of retiring that improved retirees health, but the lifestyle changes they adopted like eating well and exercising. Researchers say the delay is mostly likely due to the fact health results don’t appear immediately.
"If you invest in your health, it takes time for those investments to show up," Gorry explained.
So if you’re wondering if you should retire or not, as the first study to look at the long-term effects of retirement concludes, “Retirement has long lasting benefits to individual wellbeing.”