Demographic Factors and Retirement Success: A Conceptual Review

Abstract

Many argued that successful retirees do not consider retirement a retrospective but rather an opportunity in career advancement to shape a new lifestyle. Retirees’ post-retirement studies have enjoyed overwhelming research over the past few decades. What determines retirement success has; however, received little attention in management literature. It is a known fact that the success rate of retirees is both subjective and objective in nature, because the parameter used to measure success is contentious. Literally, several studies have argued for and against the connection between demographic factors such as, age, gender, education, race and the most popular one, employment and retirees’ retirement savings status. Yet, there is no consensus among scholars on the specific determinants of retirees’ success. In exploring these controversies, this paper was guided by related theories on retirement. Consequently, an extensive literature reviews that revolves around the key themes of this paper were conducted; context analysis was utilized to explain the phenomenon under study, and in no way that each variable defined in this study claims to be specific determinant for retirement success. Thus, the finding is inconclusive thereby suggesting that further empirical research would be needed to investigate the nexus between age, financial freedom, education, and employment status on retirement success.