Inflation Is Forcing Many Retirees to Put Long-Awaited Plans on Hold—Again

Brenda Dickason dreamed of traveling to Europe in retirement. Instead, the former teacher and police detective spent 2022 watching TV with her husband at their Tucson, Ariz., home and selling homemade soaps to pay for her medications. 

Dickason, 67, is one of millions of retirees who have been forced to table long-cherished plans as they cope with the highest inflation in 40 years. After surviving the pandemic, older adults are again putting their lives on pause, this time due to soaring prices on everything from housing to groceries to gasoline. Some are going into debt or burning through savings more quickly than planned. Others fret over individual-retirement-account balances that were down an average of 25% year over year in the third quarter, according to Fidelity. And still others who had planned to retire this year have decided to keep working as they wait out the storm.