Housing the next generation of golden girls: Are they prepared?

The transition into retirement is an important life phase that presents significant challenges in respect to wellbeing, lifestyle and consumption choices. This research examines the consumption context of housing post-retirement in particular for the low-resourced cohort of single baby boomer women, using the Theory of Planned Behavior framework. Specifically, we examined how certainty in intentions drives preparation and planning for significant consumption decisions in retirement. Based on these dimensions of certainty and intention we developed a typology that illustrates how the components of TPB allows us to identify different segments of the market that require different strategies to get them to be proactive in planning and preparation for retirement. This typology presents significant implications for social policy and the financial services sector.