THE SCIENCE OF RETIREMENT SATISFACTION

Retirement might sound wonderful, but all too often the reality is disappointing. Some 28 percent of recent retirees polled by Nationwide Retirement Institute last fall said that life was worse in retirement than it was when they were working. It’s one of several surveys to find that, for roughly a quarter of retirees, life after work involves isolation and a loss of direction.

“I have come to believe that mankind is not meant to just sit around,” says Larry Jacobson, a retirement life-planner based in Northern California. “It usually takes about six months before people say golf is fun, but there’s no fulfillment.”

Spouses James Pawelski and Suzann Pileggi Pawelski, who study