Goal expectations as predictors of retirement intentions.

The current study explored the contribution of personal goals to retirement decisions. A SMARTER methodology (to assess multiattribute utility) and taxonomy of human goals were used to investigate the relationship between older workers' personal goals and their retirement intentions. Two hundred and fifty-one employees of a large university, varying in age from 55 to 77, were asked to indicate the relative importance of 29 goals and to indicate the utility they perceived in continued work and retirement as a means to achieve these goals. The results demonstrate that goal evaluations are important predictors of retirement intentions. Furthermore, goal evaluations provide an important and unique contribution to predicting retirement intentions beyond that predicted by personal and demographic variables. These results have implications for pre-retirement education and workplace application.