So- What Does Retirement Mean For Them

Category: Finance, Financial Planning.

I propose that we throw out the term" retirement" and replace it with" The Harvesting Phase" .

John and Sally came to their financial planner for advice: They were both 55 years old and thinking through the whole issue of retirement. For Baby Boomers who have no intention of sitting down and" retiring" , The Harvesting Phase is a time of lively engagement in life with an enhanced sense of choice about how we will use our time and energy. He is a self- employed psychologist and she is a university professor. As they talked about retirement they began to clarify what it they really want from it. The questions in front of them were: what do we want out of retirement and can we afford what we want? They want to stay active.

They want to be socially and politically involved. They want to work. So- what does retirement mean for them? They don t want to feel that they will have to work out of necessity any more. Mostly, it means that they want CHOICE. They want to CHOOSE their work and community involvement not based on need for money, but on what is most meaningful to them at this of stage of life. Today, people of the Baby Boom generation are harvesting the fruits of lives well lived and continuing to express themselves in the word in a multitude of ways.

In thinking about people like John and Sally, it is clear that the word" retirement" just doesn t fit. They were not entering retirement- they are entering the" Harvesting Phase" of life, in which they are living fully and with an enhanced sense of choice about their work and how they spend their time. It is a time when we dedicate ourselves to pursuits we have put off at earlier phases of life in order to meet life s responsibities, but are now able to give attention to. At the Harvesting Phase, work for money should be optional. One client of mine got very involved in local politics in the city of Oakland in her Harvesting Phase. Another devoted herself to the care of her grandchildren so that her son and daughter- in- law could pursue their dreams. Another joined a Bluegrass group.

Yet another is busy working on his memoirs and intends to self- publish them for his family. We let passions that may have been in the background arise into the foreground so that we continue to live with engagement and passion. The Harvesting Phase is a time when we take stock of our dreams, great and small.