While retirement has always been a difficult proposition, today’s retirees are grappling with the twin challenges of high inflation and persistent volatility in financial markets.

Unlike younger workers with a long time horizon, retirees and pre-retirees have little time to recover from financial shocks. Despite these challenges, though, retirees broadly say they are living happy and purposeful lives — even if they feel financially vulnerable.

This is according to the newly released 2023 Life in Retirement report published by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. The report compiles the survey responses of more than 2,500 late-career workers and more than 2,100 retired individuals.

As the report explores, today’s retirees and pre-retirees have saved and prepared for older age amid an evolving retirement landscape, one in which planning assumptions have changed from a primarily employer-funded model to one in which individuals carry the responsibility for providing for themselves once they leave the workforce.

Given this big shift, Transamerica reports, it should be no surprise that many Americans find themselves surprised by different aspects of retirement — from the financial to the emotional.

Notably, not all retirement revelations are negative, and many older Americans report being presently surprised by their life after work. But there are negative realizations as well, ranging from painful and unexpected tax burdens to fraught emotional challenges associated with legacy planning.

See the accompanying slideshow for nine key ways that Americans report being surprised by life in retirement. Considering all of them can help Americans better navigate the retirement journey.