Cuba has something like social security, but it is usually called a pension and it is loosely based on your employment. Women get this governmental pension at 60 and men at 65. All of the people I spoke with had the same feelings about the pension. They thought it would be very small ($20-50) and almost impossible to live on. Most imagined that they would have some sort of little job to actually give them the life they wanted. My interviews confirmed 2010 Cuban government stats that show a third of the men past retirement age are working and 3/5 of older people say they often go without 'necessities.'
To cope with this, a young man, Francis Luis, was prepared to scale back his life, but not work at all after 65. He had worked out exactly what his life would look like and how much partying he could afford. In order not to work any more, he was prepared to reduce his weekend fun to dominoes with friends and one drink. One drink a weekend. Francis Luis was 27 and I was surprised at the extent that a young man had worked out his future sacrifices. However, it did sound very much like a young man on a flight to Florida who was extolling the virtues of FIRE and the current sacrifices you would make for future independence. He talked about a scaled back partying in Manhattan in much the same way. Francis Luis was also working out exactly how his two month old daughter would be taking care of him in his living small dotage.
On item of a common retirement bucket list was off the table in Cuba though, and that was international travel. Everyone understood that to be simply too expensive and too complicated to make happen. We rode with a taxi driver who had paid $160 to apply to the US government for a visa on three separate occasions and had been turned down all three times. No refund.
Another factor impacting their understanding of retirement was housing. In Cuba, you rarely just decide to buy a house. Until a few years ago it was impossible. You live in the house your parents owned and it passes down through the generations. That is the house you will live in and the house you will grow old in. If you were fortunate enough to have a good house at the time of the revolution, your family was usually able to keep it. If not, o well. So growing old is going to happen in a very predictable place. You are stuck with you extended family and their habitation. Forever. I talked to a young man who was planning to move out for a few years when he got married, but he then admitted that he would move back in after a bit. When I describe the situation of being stuck with the family habitation to people in the States, many can't imagine a world in which relatives are inescapable.
We did pass by what we might a call a nursing home suspiciously close to the cruise ship docks that looked very much like one in America except all the doors and windows were wide open (no screens here) and it certainly seemed like any of the residents could walk off whenever they pleased without signing out or anything.
The political situation is more in flux than we are used to in the States, so there is a bigger sense of uncertainty about the future that is palpable and translates to feelings about retirement.
One attitude that I ran into in Cuba I have found everywhere in young people and that is one of dismissal. I spoke to several young men who just shook their heads and indicated that they just don't think about that thing. The attitudes were framed in confusion and annoyance about why anyone would be talking of such things. I have found this all over the world and I suppose if you had asked me about retirement when I was 18 you would have gotten the same. The idea that any of us would ever be that old is not a pleasant idea when you are 18 no matter what country you are in.