BABY BOOMERS REJECT AND REDEFINE RETIREMENT

A majority of those approaching retirement have not thought about what happens after their career comes to an end because the idea of losing one’s identity is frightening. Many of life’s big transitions are scripted for us and follow an established progression from one stage to the next. In school, we progressed from kindergarten to elementary, from middle to high school and the next step for some was college. In the corporate world, you climb the ladder from supervisor to manager, director, VP, President, and then the C-suite. If you’re in the military, you rise through the ranks in proper order. But now that you are approaching an unscripted part of your life, you have the opportunity to direct what you will do with the rest of your life. Do you have a plan for what you’ll do with your time? Will it provide you with fulfillment and purpose?

Think about your days at work. Even on the worst day, you experience a variety of emotions including feeling valued, needed, and respected. At work, you are scolded and praised; you absorb and contribute knowledge. Most likely, you thrive on that steady flow of interaction with fellow workers, the fast pace, and the feeling that you are ‘doing something.’ When this stimulus is gone, how easily do you expect to transition to tending your garden? What will you do to maintain purpose and how will you contribute to the world?

What’s Your Plan?

The answer to this important question of what you’ll do with your time is to have a non-financial retirement plan. Having a financial retirement plan is common, but only 30% of baby-boomers have a non–financial plan. Why don’t you have a plan? Don’t feel bad; it’s not your fault. We didn’t expect to live this long and didn’t know we would need a plan for a whole new phase of our lives. Our parents didn’t have much of a plan—but we’re living 10 to 30 years longer than they did—so we need one. This is a new-found opportunity. It’s your chance for a do-over. What do you want to do? Have you thought about it?

1. Where to Start

Your plan should start by identifying your true passions, which may be aligned with what you did for your career, or they may be new ones you haven’t yet had time to explore. Then look at how you can combine that passion with your skills, experience, and knowledge gained by a lifetime of work. This is the beginning of finding your own route to a retirement of fulfillment and purpose. For example, a police officer becomes a private investigator for battered women. A teacher becomes an author of new textbooks. An airport operations manager becomes a field organizer for Red Cross emergencies.

2. Three Hurdles to Creating a Plan

• Because we didn’t know we were supposed to have a plan, most of us have figured we’ll make it up as we go. That’s being reactive, not proactive. Overcome this hurdle by beginning to think about what your ideal retirement life will look like. Can you make this life a reality financially?
• Even if we wanted to, we were never taught how to make a non-financial retirement plan. What would it include? What would it look like? I’ve met a lot of executives who could write a business plan in a day, but have no idea how to write their own plan for retirement. Ask yourself what you see as a vision? In your plan, address your social life, family life, work potential, volunteering, finances, health, mentoring, learning, exploring, travel, and passions.
• It takes deep introspection to consider what you’ll do with the next phase of your life. This is not easy to do by yourself and resources have been thin in this area. After all, the financial firms’ profits come from your invested money remaining invested, not spent on discovering new passions.

3. Three Elements To a Fulfilling Retirement

It may seem obvious but most new retirees have been so concerned with retiring from something, they have yet to consider what they’re retiring to. This is why I suggest there are three requirements for a successful retirement.

1. You must have something to retire from such as a job, career, or position of responsibility of which you are letting go.
2. You need something to retire to. This could be a new job or career, joining the board of a company, a personal passion, working for a non-profit, getting into a new relationship, or moving both physically and emotionally. Hopefully what you’re retiring to makes you feel like you’re contributing to the world’s betterment. This could be anything from a community improvement group to creating a foundation to end hunger. The more you give back, the happier you will be.
3. Creating a non-financial retirement plan means asking many questions of yourself—and answering them. Thus, the third element needed to retire is someone to nag you to get off your duff to do make a plan, and then take the first step in that plan. While I prefer my title as is, Chief Retirement Navigator, I’m also referred to as ‘the nag,’ which I don’t mind as long as the job gets done. Set goals for yourself for achieving milestones as you work toward the life of your dreams.

To sum up, you need a plan. This plan can be for a day, a week, month, year, or the rest of your life. To begin, just make a plan for tomorrow. With a plan, at least you have something to change.