Am I ready?
Carefree days full of adventure and exploration of new exotic places is the vision many of us have for our future retirement years. This isn't surprising given that our experiences outside of work during our careers are often associated with vacation time. Vacations are typically defined by brief periods of concentrated fun and leisure bookended by periods of intense and often stressful work activities. This reinforces the notion that any time spent outside of work is a blissful ideal state.
Transitioning from work life to retirement is often perceived as simply going on vacation…with no obligation to come back to work! The truth for many new retirees is often underwhelming and in many cases disappointing. Once the initial 'vacation' period passes, we are often confronted with a new sense of uncertainty associated with a massive expanse of un-structured time. Absent are the due dates, deadlines, milestones and goals that are ironically comfortable features of our working lives.
A new roadmap
This can be a very disorienting period for new retirees, as they struggle to define their new routine. I think this is completely understandable when you consider that every stage of life prior to retirement is characterized by a future 'end date'. As a student, you could look forward to a future graduation date. While in a career, there are endless milestones or future dates to look forward to such as project completions, vacations, career transitions, or indeed retirement. Once in retirement, it might be more challenging to think in terms of a target or goal to bracket our current life phase.
The absence of a goal or milestone to look forward to can fill us with a sense of dread or anxiety if we don't prepare ourselves. It can be very helpful to manufacture a mental roadmap that will help drive us forward with optimism and a sense of 'future'.
The nice thing about planning your retirement 'road trip' is that it doesn’t require the precision of GPS coordinates. Actual destinations and timeframes become less critical, so you can take the opportunity to wander down the road less travelled with lots of detours and stops along the way.
While for some retirees, this road trip plan can be quite literal, for others it is simply a way of thinking about how to move forward, and planning the scenic lookouts and landmarks that offer relief from the mundane.
A different kind of work
The important thing to remember is that the often elusive state of 'happiness' in retirement is not something that just happens with the end of work. In fact, it is not likely a realistic or worthwhile goal on its' own. Most retirees have the benefit of life experience that can inform their thinking about what activities, events and achievements in their history provided the most satisfaction, joy or fulfillment. This is something you can draw on to build an inventory of worthwhile pursuits.
In most cases, you will be able to identify some common themes in those recollections. For some, it might be mastering a new skill, or successfully completing a complex or challenging activity. For those who have been driven and motivated by completing projects in their past, then building a queue of projects into the future will keep the good times rolling.
For most, a common denominator is the presence of people and engaging with those that we like to spend time with. In many cases, this is the element that is most difficult to maintain in a post-career world. When you consider how much time is spent interacting with others during our working years, it's not hard to see why the abrupt transition to retirement can feel isolating and empty.
Actively cultivating your social network before retirement provides a higher likelihood of maintaining those connections when the routine interactions of work disappear. For some, this might mean a golf, tennis, or social membership at a local club. For others it will be joining a recreational hockey, softball, or pickle ball league. Local community centres are a great place to search out programs aligned with your interests or hobbies, and create a wonderful opportunity to meet and stay engaged with people. Volunteering can come in many forms, and retirees can find a continued sense of purpose and routine when engaging in regular volunteer roles; it also creates the opportunity to meet new people.
Although not necessarily the obvious choice for post-work activity, more paid work can also be a viable option. The key difference here is that it won't be strictly for the money (provided your retirement planning was successful!). It can be very liberating to seek out jobs on your terms that you find truly enjoyable, and are sufficiently flexible to fit into your busy retirement lifestyle!
Flexibility is key
The tendency for many pre-retirees is to want answers and specific plans to address all of these transition issues before taking the big plunge into the next chapter of life. And while having spent some time pondering, test driving, and creating a mental roadmap of the next life stage is immensely beneficial, it's important not to be overly rigid or 'buttoned down' with these plans. Discovering the retirement life that works best for you is going to be somewhat experimental, and this iterative approach is part of the appeal. The consequences of a misstep at this stage are minimal, and fine tuning and adapting to your emerging interests and ambitions will lead to better outcomes and peace of mind.
Within my family wealth practice, those clients expressing the highest levels of satisfaction in retirement are generally those who exhibit continued curiosity and who remain intentional with their time spent. In contrast, those who simply let life happen to them can become vulnerable to boredom, pessimism, and declining enthusiasm and interest in an expanded life.
Like all transitions in life, a little bit of preparation goes a long way in managing the inevitable anxiety that we experience with change. Having a plan and leaning into the opportunities that retirement presents can make these years truly golden.
As I've mentioned in the past, it's not about the pursuit of happiness...it's finding happiness in your pursuits.
Cheers,
