Lessons on retirement from the experts: retirees

David Rourke, who heads a retirement-planning firm in Needham, Mass., offers similar "don't wait too long" advice to clients worrying needlessly that they can't afford to retire. "They save and save, and don't want to start drawing from their savings," he says. "A lot of single women think they can't touch it."

In his meetings with clients, other subjects inevitably come up. "They want to know, should they stop working, what do they do after they stop working, and should they downsize their house. That's a big one."

Housing is also a big subject among Schuett's acquaintances in Yuma, especially those who have had second thoughts about living in a mobile home or recreational vehicle. "We've encountered people who really missed their house," she says. "It's a lot smaller and a lot less convenient than they were led to believe by brochures and salesmen. It's hard, especially if you're used to having a basement and an attic."

Others have told Schuett they moved to the Sun Belt too impulsively. "They didn't really know what they were getting into. It's so hot in the summer." She urges prospective retirees considering a move to a different area to take a short-term rental for a month or two to see what the community and climate are like.

Yet even planning, however important, has its limits. "There's a pretty significant gap between what people expect to do and what they end up doing," says Mr. DeLong, author of "Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of the Aging Workforce." "At 55 they might say, 'Oh, I'm going to work until I'm 75.' That may not happen."

For Albert Sutkus of Bedford, Mass., there was no time to plan when his employer, a wire and cable company, announced a downsizing. "They told us to take [the severance package] and run." In the 20 years since then, he has engaged in varied volunteer activities. He now runs the fix-it shop at the Bedford Council on Aging.

"Everyone has great expectations," Mr. Sutkus says. "They project their life and future life, and it doesn't always work out the way they planned. I'm alive, I've got a good wife, good children. Minus some medical problems, what else can I ask for?"

While some people forget to plan, Hartman finds others making another mistake. "They ignore the magic of serendipity - that opportunity that appears when you are out looking for and doing something else. There is that sense of possibility, adventure, exploration." She and her husband have both found serendipitous activities in retirement, he as a town selectman and she as a member of a chorale.

For the Schuetts, who expect to retire at 65, the next 10 years will involve "working on having savings for our backup money." She adds, "Both of us are making sure we have things to do. We'll probably end up doing volunteer work. That's what my parents did. They were a lot happier having something to do." Already the couple has spent years volunteering for programs that help seniors.

"For some people, retirement is the best thing they ever did," Schuett says. "Some people just blossom. They're not doing their same old job. They find a volunteer job they really enjoy. They're having a whale of a time."

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