Drawing on a life course perspective, we examine husbands' and wives'
perceptions of spousal influence on the decision to retire. Data from
228 couples in the Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study reveal that
retirees and their spouses agree that spouses do influence the retire
ment decision, bur spouses view their role as more minor than the reti
rees, themselves, see it. For retired husbands and their wives, discus
sing retirement is most closely associated to seeing the wife us influ
ential. For retired wives and their husbands, the impending retirement
of the husband is related to perceptions of this influence on her ret
irement.