Planning for financially independent retirement

Abstract

OBJECTIVES : The study investigated whether dentists in South Africa are actively planning for retirement and if they are confident about being able to retire as financially independent. METHODS : An anonymous online questionnaire was used to collect data from private dental practitioners who were members of the South African Dental Association. Stata release 11 was used for descriptive statistical analysis. RESULTS : The majority of the respondents (71%) were male and 42% of respondents were older than 50 years of age. It was mostly the older respondents, namely 71% of 41-50 year old respondents, 94% of 51-60 year old respondents and 72 % of respondents older than 60 years, who were actively planning for financial independence at retirement. More than half of the respondents (54.35%) were not confident that they would be able to retire as financially independent and think they will have to postpone their retirements. CONCLUSION : Retirement planning is much more complex than simply contributing to a pension, provident or retirement annuity fund. Dental schools can play an important role in equipping dentists with the necessary knowledge and skills to enable proper retirement planning, and to encourage early retirement saving and investment to ultimately ensure financially independent retirement.