TIAA: All Workers Should Account for Career Interruptions, Moves in Retirement Planning

U.S. retirees’ greatest regrets about their retirement planning may be a tool to better prepare younger generations for the future, according to a recently released report from the TIAA Institute, “Bridging the Gaps in Retirement Expectations.”

Among retirees’ top regrets were savings-related concerns, with 76% reporting they should have started saving earlier in life, and 71% stating they should have saved more. Retirees also ranked underestimating healthcare costs (49%); underestimating the impact of life events, such as job loss and caregiving (49%); and not having clear retirement goals (47%) among their five biggest retirement-planning regrets.

In addition, “Americans’ work histories reinforce current retirees’ regrets about not accounting for life’s curveballs, as well as future retirees’ worries about the unexpected,” the report stated.

TIAA found that 51% of respondents reported having left the job market for more than one year during their working life. The share was even higher among parents (56%) and caregivers currently providing care for a child with special needs or an adult friend or relative (65%). Among all respondents, the primary reasons for leaving the market for more than one year were caring for children (17%), changing careers (16%), experiencing burnout (16%), getting laid off (16%) and moving (16%).

Tim Pitney, TIAA’s head of lifetime income distribution, says that stacking a career interruption on top of retirement-savings-related concerns is a “double whammy.” He suggests that to plan for an adequate retirement, savers need to start expecting the unexpected.

Moving is “oftentimes an unplanned event,” but many times it is planned, especially in retirement, Pitney explains. “But if [the move] is during the working years, it can be disruptive … and have an impact on [a worker’s] career, [creating] a gap during [their] savings years.”

Some 26% of current retirees surveyed reported changing residences in retirement, and even more respondents (36%) who had not yet retired said they expected to change residences in retirement, according to the report. Men and women were equally as likely to expect to move to a new type of home (22%), for reasons such as downsizing and seeking fewer home maintenance obligations. Among those not yet retired, 18% said they were likely to move to a new area, including 14% of women and 22% of men.

TIAA found that future retirees would benefit from:

• “retirement reality workshops” that use current retirees’ actual experiences to demonstrate best practices and common pitfalls;
• education about products that allow for partial withdrawals and continued saving; and
• career interruption funds and support programs that account for potential career gaps and provide personalized catch-up guidance when interruptions occur.

The report was completed to help savers avoid the mistakes and regrets of those who retired before them, Pitney says: “While workers have a ‘mental image’ of what retirement can look like, TIAA wanted to ‘test that image against reality.’”

TIAA surveyed 1,591 U.S. adults ages 22 through 75 at various stages of their careers and various stages of retirement planning in July 2025.