To Work Or Not To Work—That Is The Retirement Question
Boomers have always prided themselves on their work ethic. Do you remember how eagerly you awaited that magical age of fifteen or sixteen when you could finally get a job and begin earning your own money? A job was even more important after you got your driver’s license and you needed money for car expenses. Working was your key to independence even though it meant more responsibility.
I still remember how excited I was to get my first job at fifteen years old. It was at a hospital kitchen washing dishes and loading meal carts for patients. I was even more excited when I got my next job at Rossi’s family bakery. I remember thinking that this was the perfect job for me. I could satisfy my love of sweets as I earned money. When I was in high school, I made my own clothes to save money. While in college, I worked several summers at a dress shop where I could buy clothes at a discount. Besides making money, I discovered I liked helping women pick out clothes.
After college, my professional life began as a fifth-grade teacher in upstate New York. When I moved to Virginia, I taught another year before getting a high school counseling position. Being around all of those teenagers with their endless problems and drama was like getting a PhD in psychology. I learned as much from them as I did from my six years of college and graduate school. Being a high school counselor was a great training ground for becoming a licensed therapist. After getting married in 1987, I started my own psychotherapy practice, which I have thoroughly enjoyed for the past twenty-six years. Seven years ago, I began my encore career as a Certified Life, Retirement and Recareer Coach.
What Work Provides
As I write this newsletter, I am fully aware of having worked for well over fifty years. I am grateful for the many valuable things work has given me. It has given me not only income but also the freedom to be independent and have a comfortable lifestyle. As a helping professional, my work gives me a sense of purpose and an opportunity to meet wonderful people as I gain more experience, skills, and knowledge. Throughout my career, work has also given structure to my life and aligned with my values and strengths. Working in my psychotherapy practice provided me with a sense of my identity.
Throughout my forty-year career, I have been exceedingly proud of my profession and my participation in it. It wasn’t until I began to think about retirement in my fifties that I realized how much of my identity was attached to what I had been doing in my private practice. Some of this identity with work is normal, but for me it went to the extreme. When I first read the statement “what you do is not who you are,” I had to read it several times to grasp and absorb its full meaning. As I pondered this simple yet profound message, I came to the realization that it really spoke to me. I was completely wrapped up in my career, my training, and my certifications. My career was such a huge part of my life that I didn’t even get married until I was in my early forties. In my thirties and forties, I couldn’t imagine life without my career. Who would I be if I wasn’t Dee Cascio, the helping professional?
When my husband began to talk with me about slowing down and refocusing our lives, I was truly missing in action. It wasn’t until several family members became ill with cancer, along with other life-altering circumstances, that I began to reflect on my life and career. Luckily, everyone is doing well now, but this got my attention, making me realize I needed a healthier balance in my life. As I educated myself on this next stage of life, I slowly accepted the fact that there is more to me than the work I do.
Creating Your Retirement Lifestyle Portfolio
I have a friend who retired from a government agency after thirty years of service. Before he retired, he started doing database development for small to medium size organizations. Although he retired, he continues to do contract work with the agency he retired from by working one day a week. He also volunteers in his community and enjoys playing the drums in a band that he organized many years ago. Throughout the year, he and his wife enjoy traveling and going to their beach condo to relax with friends and family. Wouldn’t you agree that this retirement portfolio has a little bit of everything?
I also have a friend whose husband died just about the time they were planning their retirement years together. To help manage her grief, my friend continued to work part-time in her private therapy practice. She also took bike tours with friends, just as she used to with her husband. With the extra time she had, my colleague became more active in her health club and took up tap dancing, something she had always wanted to do. Because of the freedom provided by her lifestyle, she’s been able to visit her children and grandchildren more often. These activities, along with volunteering, sustained her through her grief and she has been able to recreate a full life for herself in retirement.
These two examples demonstrate that there are many successful paths to a great retirement. I’m not suggesting for a moment you should lose passion for the work you do just because you reach sixty years old. Both of my friends incorporated work into their retirement lifestyle portfolio. The bottom line is this: if you want to or need to, you can continue to work. It’s a personal choice. Besides the money, there are many reasons you may continue to work, even if it is only part-time. Work will keep you current in your profession, engaged, feeling purposeful, and it encourages personal development.
The difference is that this stage of life requires you to find more work-life balance. This is important in any stage of life, but especially as you transition into retirement. Unless you are laid off or there is a mandatory retirement age for your profession, there is nothing wrong with continuing to work in your chosen profession as long as you fulfill your other life responsibilities and interests as well.
In Mark Freedman’s new book entitled The Big Shift, he argues for “the creation of a new stage of life between the end of our middle years, and the beginning of retirement and old age.” Old age is getting pushed back as our longevity increases. Friedman believes “if we act now, this new stage could well become a destination where boomers use their talents and skills to provide solutions to much that ails us in our society.” This sounds like a call to action to me. Why not answer the call?
My Challenge To You
What is your plan going into your retirement career? Will you recareer to a new profession or stay with what you are doing but at a reduced schedule or in a different position? Be careful that you don’t slip into complacency and fail to use your special gifts in a constructive way. It’s that all or nothing syndrome. Here are some suggestions to keep your vitality for life alive and well as you move into your next stage of life.
- Create a list of jobs you have held in your career, the skills you used for each job, and what you liked and disliked about each one.
- Look for the skills and experience that brought you the most pleasure and satisfaction within each of those jobs.
- Explore what else was going on in your life at the time that might have added to the quality of your life and include it on your list.
- Think about how you can use those strengths, skills, and experience in your life and career going forward.
- Make sure that you have ample leisure activities while maintaining time for family, friends, and volunteering in your retirement portfolio.
This exercise can be valuable in helping you to remember the highlights of your career and life and how you can integrate them into a new career, whether it’s volunteering, starting your own business, beginning a new endeavor, or a combination of these.
Having a life filled with purpose and meaning in all stages of your life is so important to maintaining your physical, mental, and emotional health. It keeps you interesting, alive, and engaged, and it will help you make the best of your life for the rest of your life.
Dee
Dee Cascio
Author, speaker, Licensed Psychotherapist, Certified Life Coach, Retirement Lifestyle/ReCareer Coach, and Life and Work Transitions Strategies Coach.
The Life and Work Transitions Community
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