Retirement – The Gift of Time
April 10, 2017
Survey results can provide fascinating reading. They can give us insights into market trends, or tell us how we compare with others. This week two surveys provided information on a key area for most all of us: retirement.
One survey focused on what people are most interested in, or excited about, as they approach their retirement. A second dealt with people’s plans when they swap a typical work week for the beauty of no time commitment except to oneself. With 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring every day these issues are current and compelling.
At the outset of retirement many regard the outlook with hope and optimism. 71% of pending retirees expect to have more fun in retirement than they did when they were working. 59% expect retirement to be a time of lower stress, and a similar number stated they looking forward to spending more time with their spouse. Perhaps surprisingly only 26% expected to increase time spent with their children and grand children, while only 19% were excited about devoting more time to their hobbies or passions.
Overall people look forward to being their own boss, accountable to no one. The need for clock management, and mandatory, and sometimes senseless meetings goes away. The reasons why retirement is viewed as a time of less stress seems fairly obvious. In retirement, people’s behaviors can and do change. For example some of our retired clients will push back the time for a call or a meeting to allow a more leisurely start to the day. This is very natural in the context of reduced time management demands in retirement.
The responses to one of the surveys contained some interesting advice. The suggestion was that retirees should shed the professional identity from their former working lives. Unless you continue to work part time for example as a consultant, friends and acquaintances will soon forget your old profession, title or importance. Instead people will begin to identify you with your retirement “persona”. In fact, retirement provides an opportunity to reinvent yourself.
A common recommendation for retirees is to develop new activities, contacts and friends. One interesting fact is that retirees prize “friendship” more than any other demographic group. The message is that a long and healthy retirement does not involve being a recluse.
There is also one final, but very critical, matter to bear in mind. Retirement affects not only the retiree, but their partner, who might still be working or might already be “at home” with their own established routine. The newly retired should be respectful of whatever routine is in place, and consider the impact of being around more in a thoughtful manner. Both partners should discuss each other’s preferences, plans and hopes. It may be the most important retirement meeting you have.
Carl Gambrell