Spending, Relationship Quality, and Life Satisfaction in Retirement

Abstract

Prior economic research has focused on the relation between money and well-being, rather than how resources are used to elicit life satisfaction in retirement. Using Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) along with data from the Health Retirement Study (HRS), this research explores how spending and relationship quality contribute to life satisfaction in retirement, controlling for financial and human capital factors. The results provide evidence to suggest that leisure spending, health status, and spousal and friend relationships have the greatest impact on creating life satisfaction during retirement, while other type of spending and children relationships do not.

Keywords: Retirement Spending, Relationship Quality, Life Satisfaction

JEL Classification: D12, I31, J26