Are You “Flunking” Retirement- or About To?

Flunking retirement?  Now there’s a strange concept.  How does one “flunk” out of one of life’s most coveted and cherished prizes?

I first came across the concept five years ago when I read a book entitled “Don’t Retire, REWIRE!” by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners, former executive recruiters and a husband and wife team with 25+ years of experience working in the area of personal and professional transition.

Following hundreds of interactions with people in late life transitions and actual interviews with hundreds of pre-retirees and retirees, they discovered that the old adage “if you fail to plan, then plan to fail” comes into play in moving into and through retirement.  It turns out, a significant number of people do, in fact, flunk retirement.

Outlooks and attitudes toward retirement differed amongst pre-retirees they interviewed and fell into one of four categories.  Perhaps you’ll see yourself in one of these:

1. Those who were excited and knew what they were getting into.
2. Those who were excited but had no idea what they were getting into.
3. Those who were panicked and had no idea how to get in control.
4. Those who were angry and not physically or mentally ready but being forced into it.

My general observation would say that #2 dominates.  There is research out there that indicates 70% of retirees go into retirement with no semblance of a non-financial plan.

Doing it right

Some of this was borne out this week when I had coffee with some good friends, a couple I hadn’t connected with for over a decade.  I’ll call them Carol and Ron.  Carol had retired four years ago from her sales jobs with the same telecom company after 32 years (that is not a misprint), the last 4 or 5 of which was pure agony.  Yes, she did it for the money – you probably would too if you were a consistent and award-winning six-figure earner.

She is 63.  Ron is 64 and a successful sales rep in a different industry. Ron is not yet retired and is negotiating an exit plan with his company.  He, unlike most his age, is in the driver’s seat.  His company really needs him and doesn’t want him to retire.

I wanted to talk with them because I knew them to be disciplined and diligent in everything they do, especially when it came to the financial side of their life.  I remembered they had worked with a financial planner for many years.

Carol and Ron are poster children for how to do it right.   Plan.  Save.  Get good advice.  Diversify.  Pay off the house. Don’t overspend. No debt.  Honestly, it was pretty humbling to see what they have done and hear how they’ve done it since I fall seriously short of it all.

Sitting there in a million dollar home, beautifully and comfortably upgraded, it was apparent that they are happy with what they had achieved on the financial side of their life.

Is that all there is?

As we discussed what full retirement for the two of them is going to look like, I detected a bit of a chink in the armor.  The conversation didn’t go much beyond looking forward to more travel.  Oh, and more painting on her part, a hobby she took up upon her retirement. And probably more golf for Ron.

They, for the most part, do the right things health-wise (except for Ron’s admitted attachment to beef) so they acknowledge the possibility of them both realizing a “longevity bonus”.  Their financial planner has wisely helped them plan out their finances to age 90.  I think they’ll get there.  But I’m not sure they had really factored that into the vision for their retirement.

What I didn’t hear was much beyond pure leisure in that impending retired life.

And I get that.  It’s normal and makes perfect sense. That diligence, that discipline, those years of hard work deserves a return.  And what better payback than to see the world, go where few are able to go. And to kick back and pursue deferred personal passions.

Until it all turns into “is this all there is?”

The world will benefit

I think I know this couple and what is going to happen.  They are going to flunk traditional retirement.  And that’s a good thing.  Because when they do, they, and we, will benefit.

This isn’t a La-z-boy couple. And I don’t think they are going to be a “world-traveler-look-at-my-photo-album” couple forever either.  They are too diligent, too intelligent, too disciplined and too forward thinking to withdraw into the margins of life and society.

Be it three years, five years, I predict that failing at traditional retirement will happen for them.   And we will all benefit because they will show up in meaningful service to their fellow man, in some way, some form,  resurrecting the talents, skills, and experiences they have acquired and turning them back to work on behalf of society.

The form that this takes will be unique to them and is part of the adventure of what I’ll call “second half discovery and reinvention.”

An Attitude Instrument

I see the possibility that Ron and Carol will emerge as part of the growing ranks of the “forever young, forever passionate, and forever engaged”.  This is an attitude that Mitch Anthony saw more prevalent as he did the research for his seminal book “The New Retirementality”.  In these energetic second-halfers, he isolated five internal focuses and patterns steering their lives safely “through the existential seas of fulfilled and pleasurable living day by day.”

He calls these the Vitamin C’s of Successful Aging:

• Vitamin C1 – Connectivity: the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction right after retirement was not health or wealth but the breadth of a person’s social network.
• Vitamin C2 – Challenge: the brain is a muscle that atrophies. Beyond 50, we can put a finger in the dike of Alzheimer’s and dementia by having “riddles to ponder, problems to solve, and things to fix.”
• Vitamin C3- Curiosity: curiosity guarantees “a pulse in the brain and a reason to keep our bodies healthy.” He who no longer wants to learn should order the tombstone.
• Vitamin C4 – Creativity: we can be creative and keep the powers of observation alive until the end.  There is no end point to creativity.  We just have to be “curious, intrigued, expressive and intentional.”
• Vitamin C5 – Charity: studies have confirmed the ameliorative effects of charitable living on quality and longevity of life.

No one should feel bad about flunking a retirement built on a 125-year old false premise.  Ron and Carol certainly won’t. Let’s hope more and more people will fail.  Let’s fight the comparison-driven desire for comfort and inactivity, rise up against our youth-oriented culture and help prop this country back up by resurrecting the energy, vitality, creativity, and wisdom underneath the grey and wrinkles.

I suspect the theme here is upsetting to some – or perhaps many –  because traditional retirement is so coveted and entrenched in our thinking.  I’d love to hear from those opposed as well as those who agree.  Scroll down and leave a comment and/or trip over to our Make Aging Work Facebook page and help us with a Like.