Industry News

On March 18, 2025, the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College released its issue brief, A Review of Existing Measures of Retirement Well-Being. Although various measures of financial readiness may indicate that retirees could experience financial challenges in retirement, the majority of survey respondents report having life satisfaction.

The study compared the subjective measures of well-being in retirement with objective measures. It examined the relationship between life satisfaction and four objective measures: 1) physical health; 2) mental health; 3) financial security; and 4) living situation. The results indicated that the objective measures (i.e., health and income) may be inadequate predictors of reported life satisfaction.

Other key findings include:

• Survey responses related to life satisfaction may not be sufficient for policymakers concerned about retirees’ financial security; and
• Other options for consideration to capture well-being could focus on whether retirees need to reduce spending in retirement as well as their responses to various emergencies and unexpected expenses.

According to the brief, “objective physical health is the only moderately good predictor of life satisfaction and the only financial component that matters for satisfaction is non-mortgage debt. But even so, the relationship between both measures and life satisfaction is small.”

The brief is available here.