The Middle Class Says These Are the Top 5 ‘Retirement Dreams’

The best retirement plans are those that succeed in bringing retirement dreams to life. For the middle class, the key is to dream big, but not beyond the realistic boundaries of their budgets.

The good news is that research shows most average earners have post-career aspirations that are within reach of a reasonable nest egg.

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The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies is a division of the Transamerica Institute, a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to researching and educating the public about retirement security.

It recently released its Retirement Outlook of the American Middle Class 24th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey , and the results reveal that most average earners have lofty but realistic hopes for their golden years .

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Who Is in the Middle Class?

The study defined the middle class as households with annual incomes of between $50,000 and $199,999, which its authors said represents 55% of America’s adult population.

The study divided that broad group into two smaller and nearly evenly-divided segments — those with household incomes of $50,000 to $99,999 (28%) and households that earn between $100,000 and $199,999 (27%).

There are slightly more men than women in the middle class, by a margin of 51% to 48%. Millennials make up the largest share (30%), followed closely by baby boomers (28%), Gen X (26%), Gen Z (13%) and the Silent Generation (4%).

Transamerica researchers surveyed more than 10,0000 middle-class Americans about their retirement dreams, allowing each to submit multiple responses. Here are the top five.

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Wanderlust Fuels the No. 1 Retirement Dream

Middle-class Americans aspire to one retirement dream more than all the rest. Sixty-seven percent of the study’s respondents hope to do what they couldn’t when they were working, saving and raising a family — travel.

The higher-earning tier was more likely to aspire to a retirement on the road and in the skies than the lower-earning households by a margin of 71% to 63%.

For Others, People Matter More Than Places

Another 58% hope to enjoy a different, but equally soul-nurturing activity they longed for during their careers — spending more time with family and friends.

Here, too, the higher-earning households were more likely to share this aspiration, but this time by a tighter margin of 57% to 60%.

Many Dream of Finally Exploring Their Interests

When you’re working eight or 10 hours a day, there’s not a lot of free time for the activities that stoke your passions, which is why more than half of the study’s respondents — 51% — dream of pursuing hobbies in retirement.

Again, the six-figure households were more likely than their lower-earning middle-class counterparts to share this aspiration, this time with a 55% to 48% gap between them.

Some Wish To Serve a Cause Instead of a Company

After hobbies, there was a dramatic drop-off from more than half to less than a quarter who share the fourth most common retirement dream.

Twenty-three percent reported hoping to work for passion instead of profit by serving as volunteers.

Following the study’s trend, wealthier middle-class people shared this aspiration more than the five-figure households by a gap of 25% to 22%.

The Rest Have a Passion for Posterity

Rounding out the top five is the retirement dream of enjoying intimate time with the little people who will eventually grow to fill their shoes.

One in five respondents said they hope to spend their post-career years taking care of their grandchildren.

As with every other entry on the list, more higher-earning people shared this dream — this time by a margin of 19 to 22%.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : The Middle Class Says These Are the Top 5 ‘Retirement Dreams’