Retirement planning is another wellspring of disagreement. It may be decades away or it may be looming on the horizon. But many couples in Fidelity’s survey simply cannot agree on what age both think is ideal for retirement or how much they’ll need to save to pay for their current way of life. Nearly half (49 percent in the study) said they have “no idea.”
“Anecdotally, I’ve heard these same kinds of things from couples,” says Judy Ward, senior financial planner and vice president at T. Rowe Price. “We may have a vision of retirement yet neglect to see if our spouse is on the same page.”
The solution to retirement squabbles is to improve communication. Ward says couples can write out their vision of retirement separately, then compare notes.
If one person pictures a lake in Canada and the other is dreaming of a Miami condo, “clearly you’ll have some compromising to do,” she says.
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