by KYW's Salil Gutt

Many couples are discovering that the transition to retirement is one of the toughest tests for a marriage.

It starts with the timing decision. When to retire?  In this age of two career couples, it is now not always a case of both wanting to retire at the same time. However, all studies done on this subject show that marriages do better when both do retire at the same time.

The first year in retirement is generally the rockiest. This is because the single most important thing that most couples do not do is talk about their respective visions of retirement.  Primary questions should be where to live and how to spend the time together. Too much togetherness could be bad.

Also, from a financial perspective, housing costs are the single largest budget item so where to live is a critical decision. 

The message here. Not all retirement decisions are financially driven. The softer issues are just as important and the result is a shared vision of retirement that both can look forward to rather than dread.