As a Lifestyle Retirement Coach, I am always interested in hearing stories about people's ideas and plans for their retirement. Recently, I was talking to a friend who said that her father, who is a 62 year old electrical engineer, was planning to retire in about a year. Apparently, his retirement plan consists of moving to Florida because that is where his best friend is. However, he has absolutely no idea what he will do once he is there. His daughter commented that he won't last more that 6 months before he is back to work. She is quite concerned about how he will handle this important transition.
Her Dad's story reminded me of when my father retired. My father began his career as a teacher in a one room school in upstate New York and had worked his way to becoming a principle of the largest elementary school in the city that we grew up in. One day he was a very successful full-time employee and the day he retired, he had nothing to do except play golf, travel once or twice a year and do handy-man work around the house. It is important to note that money was not an issue for my father because he planned well financially for his retirement. However, while he had spent decades working on his financial plan, he had never given much thought as to how he would actually spend his time in retirement. I always thought that, with his life experience, education and wisdom, his skills would have been so valuable to many people as an employee or volunteer.
In January 2008, the first wave of the 78 million baby boomers will turn 62 years old. They will be eligible for social security and will begin to create a long term imbalance in the number of working and retired Americans. Currently, the average age for first retirements is 57.5. However, many are waiting until they are 63 years or older to retire. Beginning this year, baby boomers will begin to leave the work force and receive social security, creating the beginning of an unprecedented exodus over the next 18 years of skilled and talented workers. What will these retirees do with their time, skills and talent? How will employers compensate for this loss of skilled/professional labor?
Planning for this stage of life, which is part of everyone's developmental process, can be daunting or it can be the beginning of creating more exciting choices of activities for retirees. There are so many possibilities that can enhance a dream retirement of work, leisure, volunteerism, travel, education, hobbies, etc. Most of us have worked for a very long time and may need support and direction to realize the choices that are available to us. For the first time, we are looking at this next phase without "shoulds" or "have to's" yet realizing that there is no road map. Although many baby boomers have seen their parents experience a retirement to leisure, the current retirement trend is to create a retirement with other activities in addition to leisure.
Have you considered how you would like to spend your time once you retire? With the focus on who you are as opposed to what you have done in your career, this stage requires a letting go in order to move on and is filled with all kinds of possibilities.
The following Work Replacement Benefits were developed by Richard Johnson, Ph. D., who founded The Retirement Options Program. In order to prepare well for this stage of your retirement and not flounder about in the abyss of no plans, no structure and a lack of meaningful activity, here are some ideas for you to consider.
- Time Management/Structure: This benefit keeps your days more focused, predictable and in sink with your world.
- Financial Compensation: This benefit may be crucial if you do not have enough money to be comfortable in retirement.
- Sense of Utility: This benefit would enable you to have a sense of purpose and meaning in your life.
- Status: This benefit defines an individual's personal worth and identity when work no longer provides this.
- Socialization: This enables one to meet social needs by keeping in contact with others so both old and new friendships can thrive.
These 5 benefits can be satisfied in various ways such as:
Full-time work in the same or different field. Remember that the impending employee shortage will give you greater leverage to design your ideal work situation.
Part-time work in the same or different field in the form of job sharing or other variations.
Volunteerism in a variety of fields.
A combination of part-time work and volunteerism.
What will fulfill you? What factors will determine how the 5 benefits discussed above will be satisfied in your life to create balance and harmony?
Please take some time to explore the following websites. They contain valuable resources that will guide and empower you in making important decisions and will optimize the possibility of a successful retirement.
www.aarp.org/careers www.hollandcodes.com
www.monster.com www.volunteermatch.org
www.careeronestop.org www.handsonnetwork.org
www.entrepreneur.com www.civicventures.org
