In this article, we introduce a new perceptual measure of retirement planning metacognition, which was evaluated in the United States across 2 different data collection efforts. The measure is designed to assess individual differences in perceptions of the intellectual difficulties adults face when they think about or anticipate engaging in retirement-linked financial planning activities. In the initial study (N = 90), data revealed that the 5-item scale had a unitary factor structure and reasonable psychometric characteristics. Descriptive data suggest that some 40% of individuals report experiencing moderate to severe difficulties in thinking about retirement-related financial planning issues. A 2-stage hierarchical regression model revealed that retirement metacognition scores were well predicted on the basis of a combination of demographic and psychological measures. A follow-up investigation (N = 988) was carried out using a substantially larger national sample of American adults. A theoretically grounded path model identified antecedents of retirement planning metacognitions and demonstrated that perceived cognitive difficulties were inversely related to engagement in financial planning activities. From a theoretical perspective, this article introduces a new construct to the retirement literature that covaries with individuals’ ability to financially plan for the future. From an applied perspective, the findings suggest practitioners face a daunting challenge given the appreciable proportion of individuals who report experiencing difficulties at the prospect of planning for the postemployment period.
