Do you really want to retire?
Barry LaValley is a Canadian psychologist and aged planning expert who has collaborated with Lorica Partners for many years. When counselling people who are thinking about exiting the workforce, his opening question is normally “why do you want to retire?”
The responses he receives are varied, but one common reply is “because it’s time, I guess”.
In Barry’s experience, many people don’t actually want to retire, but have accepted their departure from the workforce with a sense of inevitability. Barry doesn’t think people shouldn’t retire, or that retirement is such a bad thing. However, he does believe you should be very clear on WHY you are giving up your work career and have an understanding or what you are retiring TO.
To help people formalise their retirement move, Barry has compiled six questions to ask yourself.
1. Why are you retiring?
This may sound like it has an obvious answer, but in far too many cases the reason that people retire is based on a misconception about what retirement is. If you are retiring because you have reached your company’s retirement age or you can now access your superannuation savings, this is understandable. However, if you are retiring simply because you think you should, then perhaps more thought might be directed towards your answers to the next five questions.
2. What is it that you will miss most about your job?
Most people gain some satisfaction or take positives away from the workplace. As you think about what you are giving up when you leave, what are some of those motivators that you will also be giving up? Generally, work plays several roles in your life. For some, it is a source of financial comfort. For others, work can provide status, the need to be needed and to create new ideas or the structure of having to meet deadlines or responsibilities. And, don’t forget about the social connections that work provides.
Some or all of these may apply to you, and it is important you identify what you feel you will lose in your life because you are not working. By the way, if none of these motivate you about your job, you should probably look for something else anyway!
3. How will you replace the things that you liked most about your work?
One of the keys to retirement success is replacing what you will miss most about work in your retirement. As you answered the previous question, you identified those things about your job that really motivated you. Now consider how you will replicate those in this next phase of life.
If you liked work because it provided you with a sense of status, you might consider working on a board of directors or creating a new business. If your work provided you with a sense of utility then volunteering or mentoring might be in your future.
4. What are you looking forward to the most about your retirement?
Since it is so important to understand what you are retiring to, you should think in terms of what you want this next part of your life to be. It is normal for most people answering this question to focus on the places they will go or the things that they expect to do. That is why Barry calls retirement the “thirty-year long weekend”, because that is how many people think about it.
The concept of a “bucket list” is not such a crazy idea simply because it forces you to write down your life goals so that you can create the plans to make them happen.
5. What areas of your retirement life need a plan?
Most retirement plans are financial plans and in a lot of cases they simply focus on building a nest egg that is big enough so that you will not run out of money. If you really want to clarify your vision of the future, then your goal setting and planning has to go beyond planning your money—in fact, you can’t realistically plan financially unless you have a vision for what you want to accomplish in each major area of your life.
6. What are the opportunities you see in your retirement?
Go beyond the leisure activities that you are looking forward to—in most cases you can probably do those now anyway. Instead, think about the kind of life that you want to lead, the values that will drive you and the opportunities and accomplishments you want to undertake. Your retirement life is a tremendous opportunity to do new things, go to new places, self-actualise and live the kind of life of your dreams.
To help our clients who are thinking about transitioning away from the workforce, we have copies of Barry LaValley’s book So you think you are ready to retire? to share with you. Please ask your adviser for a copy.
Author: Rick Walker