Ron SmithPublished on Those Retirement Years! What Stage are You In?
Retirement is all about choices. All these choices can happen over a long period of time unless you were so defined by your job you didn’t even think about it. All of a sudden, your retirement is on you and you find yourself asking “What now?” However, retirement like the rest of your life usually occurs across several stages. My research has discovered five stages: pre-retirement, full retirement, disenchantment, reorientation and, finally, reconciliation and stability. ¹ And of course, each of these stages can bring its own set of choices! Understanding the particular retirement stage that you are in helps to position the choices that you are faced with.
Pre-retirement is the first stage of retirement. In many ways, this stage can be the most important stage of retirement because this is when you begin your financial planning that will eventually be part of the foundation of your retirement. If you can discipline yourself early to set aside money your choices at the time of retirement can be much more fulfilling. During early marriage and through the college years this discipline can be very difficult. But if you keep in mind that you are saving for a 20-30 year period, it sometimes helps to keep the purpose in perspective. The usual guidance is to retire with a figure around 10-12 times your ending income beyond your expected social security income. That financial guidance is designed to protect you from medical expenses, unexpected longevity or early retirement.51% of Americans retire at 61 or earlier. The longer you wait to get started, the harder it is to recover a retirement savings shortfall, particularly for average to low-income earners. The net result can be a delayed start of retirement, working during retirement or downsizing your living expenses. Generally, it can be all three.
In addition to considering your finances, you need to consider what will make you happy and fulfilled when you transition into retirement life. You need to consider lifestyle decisions, such as, downsizing to have more financial freedom or the ability to age in place as your goal. This kind of planning can support emotional well-being. This can be a time of excitement and anticipation, but it also can be a time of anxiety when people start to worry about their readiness to retire, especially when they believe that they may not have enough money.
Full retirement is the second stage. The honeymoon stage of retirement occurs at the official beginning of retirement. It usually lasts a couple of years.
For some, this liberation from work phase “includes feelings of excitement, relief and freedom from the stress and responsibilities of your day-to-day working life. ”New retirees are off on their long-planned travel adventures, or reconnecting with family, friends or even their spouses. They could also be indulging in their hobbies or perhaps starting a new business. The retirement honeymoon is on!
Others may choose to settle into a new retirement routine for the daily living and their plans for every day which might include continuing favorite activities from their preretirement days. Others, may simply kick back and opt for rest and relaxation after many years of demanding jobs.
The third stage can be disenchantment. Depending on how you entered retirement, the let down from the honeymoon excitement can be pretty severe. Once their blur of their new activities wears off and the initial excitement is over some people may feel a sense of disappointment. The hype that they had built up in their mind didn’t match the actual experience. They may now feel like they are missing something in their lives.
They may experience boredom, loneliness or a feeling of not being needed. If not addressed, they can potentially move into a state of depression.
Reorientation is the fourth stage. Having already completed their retirement to-do lists, retirees can sometimes feel a loss of purpose. As a result, they begin to reevaluate their retirement experience. This can become the most difficult stage because it often leads to a new retirement identity. The process of creating a new identity can take some time, but once accomplished it brings some closure to your work identity and frees you to move on to enjoy retirement the way it was meant to be.
The critical step is to find something that gives you a meaningful purpose as you continue to move into the latter third of your life. This is when you can start to pursue your passion or identify a new one. Often it is a time to volunteer your time for a favorite cause. It is also the time to try new fun things in your daily life.
Finally, the fifth stage is reconciliation & stability. This final stage may not occur until up to 15 years after the official start of your retirement. In this stage, retirees experience contentment and hopefulness. And usually less chance of depression and anxiety.
Retirees usually value simplicity in their lifestyles and are living a more relaxed life. They have settled into a fun and rewarding lifestyle that makes them feel fulfilled.
Unfortunately, health changes are more prevalent during this stage. As a result, they tend to focus more on their independence and maintaining their health. They may move to a retirement community or a senior living facility where they will find better access to healthcare, activities or amenities. Continuing access to their friends becomes an important consideration.
Experiences may vary. Not everyone will go through all the stages in the same way. Transitions can vary based on prior experiences in life, but they all come with an array of emotions and worries. But if you thoughtfully prepare plans to care for your financial and emotional needs, you can temper the emotions that you will experience during this significant life transition. As a result, you can learn to age well and how to spend more time enjoying your new life.
¹Eric Paquette for Wildpine Residence, Stittsville, ON, Canada. Retirement Living: A Guide to the Common Retirement Stages & What to Expect. https://wildpineresidence.ca/category/retirement-living/page/2/ Accessed February 8, 2022.
Ron Smith is a living-in-place advocate, a member of the Age-Friendly Maricopa Advisory Committee, a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) and a Certified Living in Place Professional (CLIPP™)
This article appeared under a different title in the March 2022 issue of InMaricopa Magazine.
