It’s ReFired Not Retired Day—a day dedicated to changing the way we think about how we’ll live the last third of our lives. Today’s post looks at why the time may have come to retire retirement, and focus instead on creating a plan to make the most of our best years. Are you ready to start retirement lifestyle planning?
The history of ReFired Not Retired Day
ReFired Not Retired Day was inspired by retired refired schoolteacher Phyllis May. When she found herself unexpectedly retired and newly divorced at the age of 55, she realized there was nothing holding her back from living her best life. So, she packed her bags and moved to Florida. Since then, in addition to trying out a variety of different jobs, she has hosted a TV show and written books.
Phyllis’s story isn’t unique. We’re seeing many examples of people past the traditional retirement age doing great things. So why do we continue to hold on to the view of retiring to a life of leisure at 65?
Retiring the traditional view of retirement
Retire retirement? You might think that’s an odd thing for someone who’s spent their entire career helping people save for retirement to say. I first challenged the current view of retirement in Is retirement dead – A look at the future of retirement. I still hold the view that, with people living longer and healthier lives, it’s inevitable that our senior years will look different than our parents’ retirement.
I’m definitely not suggesting you stop saving for your future, nor am I proposing you work full-time in your current job until you’re 80. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. In my recent post about the F.I.R.E. movement, I discussed how financial independence can give us the freedom and flexibility to live—and work—on our own terms.
The truth is, if you leave your full-time career behind at 60 or 65, you’ll likely have 25 or 30 years left to live. That’s a long time to sit in a rocking chair on the porch—or a lounge chair on the beach. Finding ways to stay mentally and socially engaged can help you make that last third of your life the best of all.
But it takes a little planning…
Why you need a life plan for your best years
Traditional retirement planning has focused only on the money side of things, largely ignoring the mental, social, physical and spiritual aspects of our later years. Money is important, but cash alone won’t give your life meaning and purpose.
Ignoring these other aspects of planning can leave people feeling like something is missing after the initial “honeymoon” phase of retirement wears off.
If you’re feeling like you might be ready to say good-bye to your full-time career in the coming years, now’s the time to put your retirement lifestyle plan together. And if you’re already retired, it’s not too late to create the lifestyle you want to live.
Note: For simplicity, I use the term retirement lifestyle plan. If you’re not following a traditional retirement model, you may prefer the term longevity plan, or just simply life plan. Whatever you call it, it’s a tool to help you fill your time with meaningful and fulfilling activities.
Here are the main reasons you may need a retirement lifestyle plan.
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Leaving work creates a void
In North American culture, many people define themselves by their work. When they leave their full-time jobs behind, even by choice, it creates a void. Love it or hate it, work adds structure to our daily lives.
Our jobs also give us a sense of purpose, and help us stay mentally and socially engaged. Take that away, and many people feel lost. In extreme cases, the loss of structure and purpose can lead to addiction issues and depression.
Retirement lifestyle planning can help you identify meaningful activities to replace the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment you got from your work.
You’ve got a lot of years to fill
According to the O.E.C.D., a 65-year-old Canadian can expect to live another 22 years. Life expectancy at 65 is fairly consistent across all G20 nations, and it has been trending upwards over the last few decades.
If you work a full-time job, you probably work at least 2,000 hours a year. Add in the time it takes to get ready for, and commute to, work and you can easily be looking at 2,500 hours or more a year. Multiply that by 22 years and you’ve got over 50,000 hours to fill.
A retirement lifestyle plan can help you explore ideas to keep you busy and active.
Change is stressful
Many people think that retirement will solve all their problems—underestimating the emotional aspect of a major life change. Like other life changes, the transition to retirement can be stressful. In fact, retirement ranks number 10 out of 43 stressful life events according to the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory from the American Institute of Stress.
A retirement lifestyle plan can reduce your stress by giving you a reason to be excited about your future and creating the confidence that you’ll be able to make a successful transition.
Staying mentally engaged can avoid cognitive decline
Dementia is one of the biggest fears of older adults. Work keeps us mentally and socially engaged, and research has shown that delaying retirement can reduce the risk of developing dementia.
A retirement lifestyle plan will help you replace the mental tasks and challenges from work and reduce the risk of cognitive decline in your later years.
Things probably won’t just fall into place
When we’re working, we always wish we had more time to do the things we love to do. That’s why many people approaching the end of their careers think things will just fall into place and retirement will be everything they hope for. That does happen for some people. Others end up feeling lost after taking an initial period to unwind and recharge after leaving the workforce.
A retirement lifestyle plan can help you enjoy that time to unwind and recharge, while feeling excited about what comes next.
How a retirement coach can help
Some people have no trouble creating a retirement lifestyle plan on their own. Others may need the help of a retirement coach to prepare for the transition into retirement life.
A retirement coach follows a structured process to help you explore all aspects of creating a dynamic and rewarding retirement lifestyle.
Let me help you create your retirement lifestyle plan
I recently completed the course work for the Certified Professional Retirement Coach program, and I’m working on my practice coaching to complete the certification.
If you’re newly retired, or getting ready to retire, and would like to explore how you can make the last third of your life rewarding and meaningful, please get in touch. I’d love to help you with retirement lifestyle planning.
If you’re looking for some interesting reading to learn more about this topic, I encourage you to check out two books by Mike Drak: Victory Lap Retirement and Retirement: Heaven or Hell. Mike’s an expert in this field and his books are full of inspiring thoughts and tips. Learn more about his work at Booming Encore.
What are your thoughts on the need for retirement lifestyle planning? Join the conversation below.
That’s so interesting to hear someone talk about the stress behind retiring. I think it can be taken for granted what a huge life event that is. Retirement is a challenging topic because it doesn’t feel like it will be possible for me, but I agree with everything you’re saying about it. There is so much time to fill that it’s important to consider not only money, but also how you’ll spend your days.
Congrats on your new certification! 🙂
Thank you. It is easy to take for granted that everything will be just fine when you retire. It does work out that way for some, but not for others—especially people who put a lot of energy into their jobs at the expense of other things in life.
Congrats on working your way towards your certification! I admire your zest for continuous learning! I look forward to retirement but not because I hope to be relaxing on a beach or anything, I plan to do a lot more volunteer work (I used to volunteer quite a bit before Charlotte was born) and I want to dedicate more time to writing, reading a lot more and traveling! I’d love to also learn new things too, anything that requires class learning sounds exciting! A lot of my friends grumble about how many more years until they can retire but I don’t know that they’ve thought through what they’d want to be doing with all that free time.. You bring up great points! Thanks for your insights, Michelle!
Thanks so much for your insights. Taking this course was worth it for me just to make sure my own plan is well-thought-through. I think a lot of people count down to retirement because they are unhappy with their job. I’m lucky that I enjoy my job but there are so many other things I want to do.
I’ve been working on a work/life balance so that I can enjoy the best of both worlds now. My hope is that I can continue that throughout my life and not feel a need or rush to retire. Owning my own business was the best decision I’ve ever made.
That’s a great way to do it. I wish companies offered more options for part-time work for people approaching retirement. With the current labour shortage, that’s unlikely to happen. If I want more flexibility, I will probably have to leave my current job and do freelance work.
I love how you are seeking to complete your coaching certificate by putting out the offer of coaching here! What an awesome way to help people who need guidance and finish up your course on a positive note.
Though I am decades away from many of the things you talk about here, I still enjoyed reading this and thinking about your points! I do believe, when I am in my 60’s, that I would enjoy still pursuing my purpose. 🙂
Thanks Jaya. When I think of how the idea of retirement has changed since I started working 30 years ago, it’s very interesting for me to think about what the next 30 years will hold. The world is changing very quickly.
Congratulations on your new qualification. I’ve never heard of retirement coaches but I can see they are needed, as we are living longer and it’s could be a long time being bored!
Thanks Rachel. I think that’s part of the problem. People think their retirement will be like their parents’ but we are living so much longer now – and most of us don’t have the guaranteed pensions they had.
I can support your advice that planning is crucial. I had a very high profile job and worried I’d lose my identity without it so I planned some consulting work and volunteer work years before I pulled the plug on my full time job. My wife and I had also developed a number of shared fun hobbies, like hiking, tennis, fishing and running that would give us quality time together and keep us close. All of that has made my first six years of retirement a lot of fun. I enjoyed my job but I am enjoying my well planned retirement even more. Some of my peers who retired when I did have gone back to work because they weren’t happy in retirement. I think it didn’t work out for them because they didn’t plan it in advance. And that’s sad to me.
I know several people who ended up back at work because they didn’t know what to do with themselves. Others sink into depression or turn to alcohol to fill the days. It sounds like you and your wife had a solid plan and are living your best life. Those are the stories I love to hear! It’s one of the things that inspired me to explore retirement lifestyle coaching as a retirement gig.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Good Morning Michelle! Retirement is one of those things that I have put some though into as it would free up time for me to write full time. What that means I do not know I just know that I would love to be able to try and get the ideas out on paper. And while people say all the time that you can carve out time to do anything you are passionate about I am beginning to suspect that those people are robots who do not require sleep or anything else. I am just kidding 🙂 One of the things I discovered a few years ago when I was on leave for 3 months was how little I could get by on. And while not how I want to retire living on a shoestring budget but I am in a better place to understand that I do not need to spend great swathes of money I actually am quite nonmaterialistic. Except for my laptop and kindle. I am on my third one.
I think you are right though that people go into retirement not knowing how difficult it can be to go from doing something every day to doing nothing. And while both you and I know that it is not nothing but as you pointed out going from structure to unstructured can play a toll on a person’s health both physical and mental.
Have a fabulous rest of your week. 🙂
Hi Jay-lyn! It is hard to find time for your passion projects when you’re working full-time—especially when you’re raising a family. Now that my girls are grown, I have time to spend on fun things I never did before.
I agree that we can live on a lot less money than we think. The pandemic taught me that (among other things).
The interesting thing about retirement lifestyle planning is it doesn’t take a lot of time. It’s actually fun because you get to dream a little—and we could all use more of that these days.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Have a great day!
first congratulations for getting your certification to become a retirement coach. It definitely sounds like something that many people would benefit from. Many look forward to retiring & the day to day grind of a 9-5 job.. but at the same time many do not have a concrete plan on what to do with their newfound freedom. it’s like a reward that we are supposed to look forward to but how many can say that they have a plan on what to do once they a retired? and many are not even properly prepared financially as they might have to pick up a small part time job just to make ends meet.
I wish you luck and hope many will benefit from this.
Thanks so much Helen. Retirement lifestyle coaching is a relatively new area in the retirement planning domain, but it’s so important because many people just think they will ride off into the sunset and everything will be bliss. That does work for some people. The people who tend to struggle are those who were very career-focused.
Thanks for reading and commenting.