Best Retirement Advice From Retirees: 10 Lessons Backed by 2026 Survey Data

By Craig Wear, CFP® | Last reviewed: October 14, 2026

The best retirement advice from retirees is that retirement usually starts sooner, costs more and relies on less paid work than workers expect.

The best retirement advice from retirees, based on 2026 survey data, is to plan for an earlier exit than expected (the median retiree stopped at 62, and 46% retired early), budget more for health care, avoid counting on paid work later, enter retirement with less debt, plan for taxes on pre-tax savings, and retire to something meaningful.

What is the best retirement advice from retirees?

The best retirement advice from retirees is less about investing and more about expectations: retirement tends to begin earlier, cost more and depend more on Social Security than people assume while they are still working. That pattern shows up year after year in the two largest recurring primary surveys of retirees.

This guide distills retiree-reported experience from the 36th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (2,544 Americans surveyed in January 2026, including 1,045 retirees) and the Federal Reserve’s Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025 report (nearly 13,000 adults surveyed in October 2025). Rather than one person’s anecdotes, each lesson below rests on a measured gap between what workers plan and what retirees actually lived.

Avoidable errors such as cashing out a 401(k) or outdated beneficiary forms are a separate topic covered in 10 costly retirement planning mistakes. This page focuses on what retirees themselves report.

Why do retirees say to plan for an earlier retirement than expected?

Retirees say to plan for an earlier exit because nearly half of them did not choose their retirement date. In the 2026 survey, 46% retired earlier than planned, 48% retired about when planned, and just 6% retired later than planned (EBRI Fact Sheet #2).

Lesson 1: Plan for an earlier retirement date. Workers report a median expected retirement age of 65, but retirees report a median actual age of 62. Only 12% of workers plan to retire before 60, yet 29% of retirees did. Among early retirees, 41% cited a health problem or disability, 35% cited changes at their company, and 36% said they could afford to go sooner (respondents could give more than one reason).

The Federal Reserve’s data points the same way from a different angle. Health problems were a factor for 28% of retirees, 17% retired in part to care for family members, and just over 1 in 10 were forced out or lacked available work; together these factors shaped the timing for 46% of retirees (Federal Reserve SHED 2025).

Lesson 2: Do not build the plan on working longer. This is one of the largest expectation gaps in the survey, and it appears in every year EBRI has reported since 1999. Three in four workers plan to work for pay in retirement, while 31% of retirees say they actually have.

Retirees who do work mostly cite positive reasons: 91% want to stay active and involved and 85% enjoy working, though 41% also say they need money to make ends meet. A plan that works without paycheck income, and treats any later earnings as a bonus, matches what retirees actually experienced. A practical way to stress test that is a 10-point retirement readiness test.

What do retirees say about Social Security and where income really comes from?

Retirees say Social Security matters more than workers expect, because personal savings and paid work show up far less often in retirees’ actual income than in workers’ plans. The table compares expected and actual income sources from the same 2026 survey.

Source: EBRI and Greenwald Research, 2026 RCS Fact Sheet #2, Figure 4. Workers planning to retire n=864; retirees n=1,045.

Lesson 3: Treat Social Security claiming as a major decision. Because 66% of retirees call Social Security a major income source, the claiming age affects most of the household budget for life. For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67, claiming at 62 pays 70% of the full benefit, and waiting to 70 pays 124%, per the Social Security Office of the Chief Actuary. Benefits rose 2.8% for 2026 under the annual cost-of-living adjustment.

Retiring at 62 does not require claiming at 62. Some retirees bridge the gap with savings to secure a larger lifetime check; the trade-offs, including survivor benefits, are covered in when to take Social Security.

How much higher are health care and living costs than retirees expected?

Noticeably higher for a large minority: 2 in 5 retirees in 2026 said health care expenses have been higher than expected, and 2 in 5 said the same of their overall spending (EBRI 2026 release). Fewer than half of workers or retirees have calculated what they will need for health care.

Lesson 4: Budget more for health care. Medicare is not free. In 2026 the standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month and the Part B deductible is $283, according to CMS, before Part D, supplemental coverage, dental, vision or long-term care. Retirees who leave work before 65 also need coverage until Medicare starts. A line-by-line estimate is in Medicare costs in retirement for 2026.

Lesson 5: Expect total spending to surprise. Housing is a growing pressure: half of retirees worry rising housing costs will affect their retirement, and one-third say high housing costs are already hurting their ability to save. Building a written retirement budget with an explicit inflation assumption is one way to test whether the plan survives higher-than-expected costs.

Fears about these costs are common, and a fear-by-fear breakdown is in retirement anxiety and the numbers behind each fear.

What do retirees say about debt, emergency savings and starting early?

Retirees say debt and thin cash reserves follow people into retirement, and that early, automatic saving is what separates the prepared from the unprepared. The data shows these habits are measurable years before the retirement date.

Lesson 6: Retire with less debt. In 2026, 40% of retirees said debt is a problem for their household and 13% called it a major problem, compared with 65% and 24% of workers. About 3 in 10 retirees said debt hurts their ability to live comfortably in retirement (EBRI Fact Sheet #1; EBRI 2026 release).

Lesson 7: Keep an emergency reserve. Fewer than 7 in 10 retirees said they have enough savings to handle an emergency expense, down from 74% in 2025. In retirement an unexpected bill is often paid from an IRA, and every pre-tax dollar withdrawn is taxable income in that year.

Lesson 8: Start saving earlier, inside a plan. Only 35% of non-retirees believe their retirement saving is on track, per the Federal Reserve. In EBRI’s data, 79% of workers with a retirement plan have saved for retirement versus 16% of those without one (EBRI Fact Sheet #3). The familiar “start earlier” advice is, in practice, advice to make saving automatic through a plan.

Why does the retiree income data point to taxes on pre-tax savings?

The data points to taxes because retirees rely far more on pre-tax accounts than on Roth accounts: 54% draw income from a regular IRA and 45% from a workplace plan, but only 34% from a Roth IRA. Every dollar from a traditional IRA or 401(k) is taxed as ordinary income when it comes out.

Lesson 9: Plan for taxes on pre-tax savings. Required minimum distributions begin at 73 for those born from 1951 to 1959 and at 75 for those born in 1960 or later (IRS RMD FAQs). Once RMDs stack on top of Social Security, retirees can find more of their income taxed at higher rates, and up to 85% of Social Security benefits can become taxable once provisional income passes $44,000 for joint filers.

The early retirement many retirees did not plan for has a tax side effect that is easy to miss. The years between leaving work and starting Social Security or RMDs are often the lowest-income years of adulthood, which is why retirees in that window often consider a Roth conversion in a low-income year or a deliberate tax-efficient withdrawal order.

Worked example: turning an earlier-than-planned retirement into a tax window

An early retirement can open several low-bracket years, and the 2026 brackets show how much room there is. The couple below is hypothetical and illustrates the mechanics only.

Assume a married couple, both 62, who planned to work to 65 but left work in early 2026, matching the median retiree in EBRI’s data. They hold $800,000 in traditional IRAs, live on taxable savings, have $18,000 of interest income, and are delaying Social Security. Using the 2026 standard deduction of $32,200 and the 2026 brackets from the IRS inflation adjustments:

Without any conversion, the couple’s $18,000 of interest sits below the standard deduction and owes no federal income tax. Tax figures exclude state tax and assume all income is ordinary. A financial professional can model whether converting, and how much, fits a given household.

Three guardrails apply. Before 65, a conversion raises MAGI for ACA premium tax credits, covered in the ACA subsidy cliff and Roth conversions. From age 63, income feeds the two-year IRMAA lookback, with the 2026 tiers listed by CMS. And conversions cannot be undone, so the tax bill and the cash used to pay it belong in the decision from the start.

What non-financial advice do retirees give?

Retirees’ non-financial advice is to retire to something, because the most common reason people retire is a desire to do other things, not a payout. In the Federal Reserve’s survey, 54% said wanting to do other things or spend time with family was important to their timing, and 41% said they reached a normal retirement age (Federal Reserve SHED 2025).

Lesson 10: Retire to something, not just from work. Among retirees who work, the Federal Reserve found 67% did so for at least one nonfinancial reason, such as purpose or social connection. In EBRI’s survey, 91% of working retirees cite staying active and involved. Yet only 54% of workers have thought about how they will occupy their time in retirement.

Retirees also point to guidance. One-quarter of retirees say they do not know where to go for financial or retirement planning advice, while about 4 in 10 Americans work with a professional financial advisor, per EBRI. Ideas for structuring the time itself are in retirement lifestyle planning.

Frequently asked questions

This article is for educational purposes only and is not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.