Ageing and psychology

 “I hate ageing” was the comment, she made, and she went on to explain that it was not getting old that she disliked it was the restrictions that ageing put on her. She moved slower, she had balance issues, and the list went on. Her partner and she were worried about retirement, she had hoped to retire this year, but due to financial considerations, she felt she could not fully retire. Planning for retirement was something she and her partner may not have done when they were younger. I believe they had not really looked at the fact they were getting older.

A recent study out of Ireland tells us some interesting things about those who are most likely to engage in financial planning. It found that psychological variables significantly predict the likelihood of financial planning behaviour among their sample of older workers. Specifically, they found that older workers with more positive beliefs about their ability to control aspects of ageing are more likely to financially plan for retirement.

They also found that older workers who have an intermittent, rather than a constant, awareness of their own ageing are less likely to plan for their retirement. Perhaps intermittent recognition of ageing is easier to ignore or does not create a sufficiently urgent impetus to begin preparing for the future, or indeed acknowledge impending aging? Interestingly, those with more negative perceptions about the consequences of ageing, but who have a more continuous awareness of ageing, were more likely to have a private pension saving plan. Again, this suggests that being regularly reminded of getting older, especially where those reminders are negative in terms of their consequences, may initiate the prioritizing of planning for retirement.