7 Questions You Need To Ask Because It’s Time To Change Your Retirement Plan
For many years, retirement planning has been viewed primarily through a financial lens. After World War II, the Social Security Act guaranteed a modest monthly income to carry individuals through their retirement years. In the 1940s and 1950s, people accepted the notion that having enough money was all you needed to plan for a successful retirement. Those were simpler times and lifespans were shorter than they are today. Consequently, very little thought was given to how a retiree would spend this relatively short period of time in retirement. Even in the 1950s and 1960s, people couldn’t count on the extra twenty-five to thirty years we now enjoy due to medical breakthroughs over the past fifty years. I personally believe this gift comes with a responsibility to use this extra time wisely.
The first wave of baby boomers seems to agree with me. These individuals are redefining retirement. Consequently, perspectives on retirement planning are also changing.
It doesn’t matter what stage of life you are in, change happens whether you are ready for it or not. To minimize the unpleasantness of change, we all create daily routines so we can go through some parts of our lives without needing to think much about what we are doing. Routines and positive habits can be a good thing. These behaviors are so ingrained that many of you might have an adverse reaction to any interruption in your predictable daily routine. Psychologists tell us that resistance to or avoidance of change has to do with fear of the unknown and/or losing control. What will your new circumstances, work situation, relationships, and even retirement look and feel like? These are normal reactions to be respected as you try to make the necessary adjustments to the continued and unavoidable changes in your life.
Change That Makes Room For Retirement Lifestyle Planning
In the last decade, society has slowly become aware of the implications of all of these “bonus years.” Beginning around the new millennium, retirement coaches and demographic consultants began to make their presence felt. Along with financial planners, many people nearing or entering retirement are just now becoming aware of the need to plan for the lifestyle aspects of retirement. It’s a change in perspective that brings the expertise of financial planners and the skills and knowledge of retirement lifestyle planners together to help create a better retirement.
Fortunately, retirement lifestyle planning won’t take as much time as it took you to develop your solid financial plan. Ideally, you should begin planning your lifestyle decisions three to five years before you actually retire. A good way to begin this process is to visit websites, read books, or attend a seminar on lifestyle planning. I have been presenting seminars for about five years and I always get very positive feedback from attendees. Many would agree with that old adage “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Prior to the seminar, most had not thought about many of the concepts and issues that were presented to them.
Everyone Eventually Leaves Work
While retiring and/or re-careering will be a very personal transition for you, the fact is that every person eventually leaves work. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding your departure from work, this is a huge change laced with much emotion. This is the transitional part of the process. To keep up with how other people manage this challenging transition, I’m always reading stories and scanning the newspaper for articles on retirement. My hope is that I will find retirement examples that will enlighten and encourage my readers.
Recently I read a Washington Post interview with Lou Gerstner, past president and CEO for IBM who many referred to as the man who saved IBM. In 2003, after successfully running IBM for ten years, he retired from the company at the top of his game. Although he retired from IBM, I don’t believe anyone reading the article could conclude that he actually retired.
What he did instead was to repurpose his skills, talents, and experience to take on some of society’s most difficult issues like education, poverty, and biomedical research. One of his projects is serving on the Sloan-Kettering Board for cancer research. Some of the things that he said in this article confirm why this transition is seldom about money and should not be taken lightly. However he did make a few concessions to the concept of retirement. He lets everybody know that on Tuesday and Thursday mornings he’s gone fishing and he is spending more time with his family and friends.
Here are some of his comments from the article:
When asked why he retired at 61 since that seemed too early to waste his talent, he commented, “What I’m doing is more important to me than anything I’ve done in my life. Retirement is not a word that ever applied to what I’m doing.”
When asked how he planned for his retirement he commented, “You’ve got to invest some of yourself in preparation for retirement and in carrying it out when you finish work.”
His advice to others is, “You need to think about this early in your career, about 10 years ahead of time, so you’ll have an idea about what you want to spend your time on.”
Getting Ready To Change Perspective
This kind of change to a new way of thinking might be much easier than you think. You may have the potential to create a successful encore career, a career that might include work but might also include other things that interest you. My purpose in writing these newsletters is to inspire you to embrace this change in your life and follow the words of wisdom expressed by people like Lou Gerstner. He is a good example of retiring from work but not from the work of life.
To embrace this change and the ultimate transition, please consider the following:
- How do you handle change?
- How can you embrace this transition with a positive and optimistic vision?
- What are you passionate about and interested in that will guide you to your purpose in life?
- What skills, talents, and experience can you repurpose to make your presence felt in your community or in the world?
- Who can you talk to about this transition to help you expand your thinking: your spouse/partner? A good friend? A mentor? A confidant?
- When will you begin to plan this most important time in your life?
- What one thing can you act on today?
Face the changes in your life while 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
You’ve joined a great group — people who plan to make successful transitions in life and work. May you be inspired to use your strengths and skills to grow in this season and may each transition be your best ever.
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Ready To Retire? Successful Retirement Planning To Make The Best Of The Rest Of Your Life
