The ‘Not Great, But Not Bad’ Retirement Trap  

It’s tempting to think of retirement as a math problem. Save enough to leave the paycheck behind and, voilà, the rest is sunsets and sailboats.

Survey data and advisors’ anecdotal experience shows retirees with plenty of money still experience uncertainty. Enter the “not great, but not bad” retirement experience, a state of being reported by 35% of respondents to Schroders’ latest retirement survey. Some advisors, who have ample experience working with clients in this category, said the survey results were less about money and more about the psychological side of retirement. Getting retirement “right,” they broadly agreed, requires a plan that goes beyond dollars and cents to answer hard questions about identity, purpose and meaningful social connection. Advisors who help clients answer these questions can enable them to move from the not-great-not-bad category to “comfortable” or even “living the dream.” 

Asi, Asi

The Schroders survey offers a decidedly mixed view of retirement wellbeing. Asked how they are experiencing life after work, most landed somewhere in the middle: 

• 4% are “living the dream.”
• 37% are “comfortable.”
• 35% are “not great but not bad.”
• 19% are “struggling.”
• 5% are “living the nightmare.”

One big challenge is that many haven’t considered what day-to-day life in retirement will actually look like. “People focus on the fun parts like golfing every day, traveling, spending time with grandkids,” said Jamie Bosse of CGN Advisors in Manhattan, Kan. Those things are wonderful, but eventually, the vacation feeling wears off. “For some, it can even feel like a grieving process as they let go of who they were in one chapter of life, and begin discovering who they’ll become in the next.” 

Others fall victim to their success as lifelong, diligent savers. “For ardent savers, starting to spend down their nest egg is often met with reluctance,” said Kevin Feig, founder and advisor at Walk You To Wealth in Boston. “For my clients, the key to a successful retirement is having a financial plan that supports a broader time plan.” Questions to answer include: How will you spend your time? What’s important to you? Will working part-time give you a sense of purpose?

A Retirement Paradox. Mitchell Kraus, an LPL Financial advisor in Santa Monica, Calif., attributes the not-great-not-bad retirement phenomenon to the “high-achiever’s paradox.” The very drive that helps people build meaningful wealth makes stepping back feel like a threat to identity, not a reward for success. “I have a meaningful number of clients who grew up with financial anxiety so deeply wired that no spreadsheet, Monte Carlo simulation, or logical argument will convince them they have enough,” Kraus said. “That’s not a planning problem. It’s a psychological problem, and standard financial advice doesn’t touch it.”

What may move the needle is helping clients map how they’ll invest their time, relationships, health, community and legacy with the same intentionality they used to build their portfolio. “The clients I see thriving aren’t necessarily the wealthiest,” Kraus said. “They’re the ones who designed their next chapter before they left the last one.”