Affluent 80s Of the 2,000 people polled, Saga found that those who worked up to state retirement age and now living off company pensions have the least financial worries.
Saga also discovered that the newly-retired, and those approaching retirement age, could learn from those who have already stopped working as they seek a stress-free retirement.
Eighty-something pensioners are the group most likely to be able to afford everything they want and also most likely to feel that retirement has matched their expectations.
In fact, more than three-quarters of pensioners in their eighties are better off, or at least as well off, in retirement as they expected. This is not the case, however, for people who retired in their fifties. Among this group, just 15 per cent consider themselves better off than they would have hoped.
Pensions were found to have a huge impact on the quality of people's retirement years.
Those benefiting from company schemes are the wealthiest, while a quarter of those relying on a state pension admitted going short once they stopped working.
Most people of retirement age look to a state pension as their main source of income, followed by a company pension, while less than a fifth draw income from a personal pension.
Personal pensions, however, are growing in popularity. Twenty-two per cent of people who retired in the past five years, and a quarter of those intending to retire in the next five years, have such a scheme. One in four men save into a personal pension scheme, compared with 14 per cent of women.
But it's not all good news. Those with a personal pension and a state pension are equally likely to find themselves worse off than expected, while a quarter of the retired have found life after work a financial struggle.
Surprisingly, being your own boss is not necessarily the key to a prosperous retirement. With the self-employed tending to retire later, 37 per cent of those polled said retirement had failed to live up to expectations.
However, among this struggling group, almost half believed they had saved enough to enjoy retirement, leaving more than half facing an uncertain financial future.
Saga is urging workers nearing the end of their working lives to be realistic about their finances and retirement age. Taking expert financial advice doesn't just help people understand their projected retirement income, but can also help those nearing retirement understand what can be done to maximise it.
Saga Group Chief Executive Andrew Goodsell said: "The experiences of people already enjoying life without work should act as an example to those who want to ensure an active and affluent retirement.
"It is not too late for people nearing, or those who have recently stopped working to make a few sound choices to ensure they can live that retirement dream."