By Lee Roderick, Past President of the National Press Club
(The Hollywood Times) 8/26/26 –
“Who is going to change your light bulbs?”
That’s a question a leading expert asks aging Americans. When pre-retirement workers 50 and older were recently surveyed on what they expect to do in retirement, the most common response was “travel.” But Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, questions this answer.
“Wealthy retirees travel only on month a year,” he says, or, for the super-wealthy who have their own boats, it might be two months. The question is, what will you do with the rest of your time?
Coughlin says planning a happy, healthy retirement requires less focus on the fun you’ll have at Disney with the grandkids and more on how you’ll get to the airport. He has crafted three questions to help people think about everyday life in retirement.
Question 1: Who will you have lunch with?
“You spend more time socially with the people you work with than the people you live with,” notes Coughlin. “If you retired on Friday at 5 o’clock, you left a big part of your social life at work. So on Monday, who are you going to have lunch with?” The most common answer is a spouse or partner. But as we learned from Covid, together time has its limits.
What does being proactive look like? Coughlin suggests connecting with old friends, or perhaps taking a class––not necessarily to learn but to learn to connect with others. “And those hobbies you want to do, don’t do them alone.” The possibilities are endless: bird-watching, gardening, volunteering at a community garden. “Get out there and do it with other people.”
Question 2: Who’s going to change your light bulbs?
Falling is a big risk for seniors. Twenty-two percent of seniors to suffer a hip fracture die within a year of the injury. Among those who recover, most ever regain full independence. “As we age, we become less well physically,” he notes “Our balance on that ladder is not quite as good as it used to be.”
So the question is, who are you going to find and trust to go into your home and “help you with all those things you now take for granted, like changing light bulbs, taking out the trash, cleaning gutters, or whatever it might be?”
“Don’t wait until there is a crisis,” says Coughlin. “If your children won’t be nearby to help, see if there’s a friend or neighbor who could.
Question 3: How are you going to get an ice cream cone?
Coughlin’s final question addresses mobility. “It’s a hot summer night and suddenly you have the desire for a soft-serve ice cream cone. How are you going to get it? Most pre-retirees can answer: You’ll grab your keys, get in the car, and drive to your favorite ice cream shop.
But what if you are 80 and don’t like to drive at night––or maybe drive at all? Coughlin encourages people to experiment. Try an Uber before you have to, explore local bus routes. “You’re not going to suddenly say, ‘Gee I don’t feel well enough to drive, and even though I haven’t used the bus for 50 years, today is the day I’m going to take the bus to the Dairy Queen!’”
For groceries, many stores now deliver, and meals can be ordered and delivered by such services as Uber Eats or Door Dash.
Coughlin says 70 percent of older Americans live in suburban or rural areas where the inability to drive diminishes quality of life. For many, an apartment in a city or town center may be a better retirement choice than a suburban home. “They’ll have fewer stairs to climb, assuming the building has an elevator.”
In addition to being director of the MIT aging lab, Coughlin is a TIAA Institute research fellow.
