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By Heather Compton
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
You’re busy! You’ve been diligently advancing your career, paying bills, raising kids and saving for retirement. Lots of your available life hours spent grooming for, travelling to or toiling away at work.
Now fast forward to your first day of retirement — nowhere to be; no need to get out of your bathrobe or into the car. For some that sounds like nirvana; for others, their worst nightmare. Even nirvana wears thin if it’s a steady diet with no variety.
The shift from active work-life to part-time work or full-time retirement is one of the important tasks of mid-and-later life. Psychologists speak of it as a transition, and like other life transitions it brings both bumps and bonuses. Imagine adjusting, as one of my clients put it, to “twice as much husband on half as much income!”
What’s Next?
What comes next? You may need to reclaim or rediscover yourself. You’ve defined yourself as parent, partner and businessperson and now you’re “out of work” on two fronts – kids grown plus the job has flown. Where does your routine, sense of purpose, identity and social engagement come from?
A rockin’ retirement isn’t a given, it’s an intention. A rich life is a goal worth meeting, but it takes focus that goes far beyond your net worth statement.
A Life with Style
At the core of virtually all measures of life-satisfaction is your state of health. Now you are driving an older vehicle, one where replacement parts don’t function as well as the factory originals. Creating a vehicle-maintenance schedule becomes your new job.
The World Health Organization describes health as, “a state of physical, mental and social well-being.” That requires a focus on all aspects of your health – financial, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.
Begin Again
