Retirement and Wealth Relationships

Abstract

Meta-analytic procedures were used to examine relationships between objective income (OI), perceived adequacy of income, and retirement and their consequences. The authors’ review of the literature generated 90 independent samples obtained from 71 primary studies with 115,129 participants, which provided 136 independent effect sizes (ESs). A high effect size ( r = .37) was found for the subjective income–retirement planning relation and a medium ES ( r = .29) for the OI–retirement planning relation. Regarding retirement consequences, both objective and subjective incomes were positively related to retirement adjustment indicators, with low ES for OI–life satisfaction, OI–retirement income satisfaction, and retirement satisfaction. Structural equation analysis using the pooled correlation matrix allowed testing a more complex model. Potential moderator variables were examined, and it was found that they explained only a small percentage of variability of primary studies. Results and theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.