Nivalainen S. From plans to action? Retirement thoughts, intentions and actual retirement: an eight year follow-up in Finland. Ageing Soc 2020; DOI:10.1017/S0144686X20000756.

A flexible and supportive working environment extends working life.

A UK dental workforce planning document (https://bit.ly/33WlnL5) states that 'many dentists choose to phase down their working week in their later years' and anticipates that 'many will work later in life before retiring.' Extending working lives is one possible solution to the problem of ageing populations and shrinking working age populations. Understanding why people chose to retire is therefore important.

This paper from Finland breaks down the retirement planning process into three phases - retirement thoughts (thinking about the possibility), retirement intentions (making plans) and actual retirement. All three are shown to be connected and plans materialise with quite high accuracy. Poor health was conducive to early retirement (and vice versa). Those who experience time pressures at work were also less likely to continue working, as were those with secure financial arrangements. Delaying retirement appeared to be related to a spouse who continued to work, a health promoting work environment, job autonomy, the ability to control scheduling and high quality occupational healthcare.