Most major life-changing events, such as marriage or births, involve an ongoing process of emotional adjustment. Retirement is no exception. Most life changing events have been the focus of research and hypothesis forever it seems.
Unfortunately, the emotional and psychological frontier of retirement has remained virtually unexplored. While research on this subject has barely begun, it is clear that the psychological process of the retirement process follows a pattern similar to any other major life event.
Retirees face what is essentially the last transition in their lives. As productive employees we give ourselves to the cause,work all week and only have the weekend to ourselves. Retirement,we are told is a time when careers are over and the work is done. Retirees have the rest of their lives to themselves.
1. Pre-retirement – Planning Time
During the working years, retirement is viewed as a reward. If we work hard, save appropriately and plan correctly then we will be rewarded with a comfortable life when we hang up the hard hat. Given the jaded advice we are bombarded with I am convinced that you can never really afford to retire. you simply plan to have a retirement lifestyle based on the income you will realistically have. Nothing more or less.
2. The Big Day
None of the planning, reading or advice prepares you for the physical stage of stopping employment itself. What ever form the final moments of work takes it all has the same effect. You are done! You lift yourself off the chair you have sat in for countless weekdays, you extend farewells to those who shared your office space and one third of each of your days and you pass through the door that is no longer yours to re-enter at will. You are retired.
3. I’m Free!
Ok so now that I am my own boss I am free. Free to do what. In my case I have hobbies I cherish. I have a todo list as long as my arm and I have dreams of foreign lands I want to visit. The problem is I planned so that I could afford the time and monies to live these dreams but I never planned how to give myself the permission to do so.
4. So this is it?
5. Reorientation
6. Routine – Moving On