Embedded Career Clocks: The Case of Retirement Planning

We investigate employees' expectations and planning about a key later life course transition, retirement. Drawing on an organizationally derived sample of workers in dual-earner households in upstate New York, we find that personal mastery, along with health, income, and job conditions, are key predictors of planning. Also important are prior biographical pacing, gender, and relational contexts (at home and at work). Members of today's mostly baby boom cohort tend to plan more financially than for life after retirement, and most anticipate retiring earlier than the conventional age of 65.