Rethinking Retirement
Planning ahead for your best years
Looking forward to retiring from work? Or retiring to a new enriching time in life.
In their new book, What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age, psychologist Ken Dychtwald, PhD. and co-author Robert Morison explore how to successfully navigate the third phase of life—the years after age 60. While the first phase involves growing up, attending school, and becoming autonomous, and the second phase focuses on family and career, the authors assert that most people have the potential to make third phase the most enriching time in life—a time for the reinvention of self.
Retirement: What you will lose … What you will gain
Employment provides more than a paycheck. It also provides identity, relationships, and a schedule of activity.
• Identity is often intertwined with work, so retiring may lead to a sense of loss. Who am I now? How do I answer the casual question, “So, what do you do?”
• Working also creates a built-in set of relationships—whether close-knit collaborators or casual coffee-room acquaintances. As these relationships end or diminish, Dychtwald says it’s essential to deliberately foster new relationships. Friendships and a sense of community promote a healthier lifestyle.
• As our daily work activities end, Dychtwald says many people think too small when planning new ones. In an October 15, 2020 New York Times interview, Ken Dychtwald says, “I’ve come to see this evolving stage of life like a portfolio, and I now have the freedom and self-awareness to change and reprioritize my mix of activities. I view it as having a better balance between quality time with my family, work, play, continued learning and volunteering.”
He continues, “I’ve come to realize that I’d like to be useful more than youthful… I have been very troubled by the lack of usefulness among so many of my cohorts. I’ve observed far too many boomers and older adults make themselves irrelevant. I was really troubled when I read that last year the average American retiree watched more than 48 hours of television per week. I don’t believe that’s the best we can do, or that’s the best we can be as elder men and women.”
Planning ahead for your best years
As Dychtwald cites long lifespans as an opportunity to make your retirement years the best part, he also cautions about having enough money to make it work. So your current spending and investment plans becomes part of the process of the transition to a successful retirement from work.
If you have any questions on your retirement financial strategy, please get in touch. We’d love to help you reach your goals.