6/6/2015 – Want a healthy, rich retirement? Keep working (U.S. News & Report)

Easing into retirement is important not just for marital health, but for mental and physical health as well, says Laura Scharr-Bykowsky, a financial planner in Columbia, South Carolina, who has seen this play out with her clients. “When people just cold-turkey retire,” Scharr-Bykowsky says, “they often have anincrease in depression or problems with their spouse, or they gain weight.” A 2013 study by the Institute of Foreign Affairs, a London-based think tank, examined data from a survey of nearly 9,000 people ages 50 to 70 across 11 European countries. Those surveyed were interviewed twice, the second interview two to three years after the first. Researchers looked at the changes in health between the two interviews. Respondents who were retired at the time of their first interview were 41% more likely to later suffer from clinical depression. They were also 63% more likely to develop a physical condition, according to the report.By contrast, those still in the workforce were far more likely to report their health as “very good” or “excellent.”

Read the full article in U.S. News & Report.