Retirement, like most major life-changing events, such as marriage or divorce, involves an ongoing process of emotional adjustment and a major transition event. The whole transition can be a happy one, and it can also be stressful. Retirement is not just plotted out the financial portion of your after-work life, you need to plan ahead for ways to fulfill your social and emotional needs, and because those needs don’t simply evaporate the day you retire. There are six stages of retirement and what you can do to prepare for this important life transition. Let’s take a closer look at each of the six phases of retirement.
Phase 1: Preretirement, planning time
reDuring the working years, retirement can appear to be both an oncoming burden and a distant paradise. Even so, the plan for retirement should take place somehow. A proper retirement plan includes three things: a financial plan, a budget, and a fun plan! The fun plan includes things that they want to do, places that they want to visit and how much money is included in the budget for those things. In pre-retirement time, it is advisable to give little thought to what they will actually do once they reach the goal, both personal and professional. This will also give ideas ahead on what activities can be done during retirement.
Phase 2: The big day, smiles, handshake and farewells
This is frequently marked by some sort of dinner, party or other celebration and has become a rite of passage for many, especially for those with distinguished careers.
Phase 3: Honeymoon phase, I am free
Once the retirement celebrations are over, a period often follows when retirees get to do all the things that they wanted to do once they stopped working, such as travel, indulge in hobbies, visit relatives and so forth. This phase has no set time frame and will vary depending upon how much honeymoon activity the retiree has planned
Phase 4: Disenchantment, so this is it?
After looking forward to this stage for so long, many retirees must deal with a feeling of letdown. Retirement isn’t an everlasting vacation after all; it also can bring loneliness, boredom, feelings of uselessness and disillusionment. In many cases, the toughest transition in retirement is from working and saving state to retirement and spending. This transition state can be emotionally and financially harder than ever expected. For anyone who retire in the younger age and they have friends and family still working, it can also be very lonely, especially if they don’t have a plan.
Phase 5: Disenchantment, so this is it?
Luckily, the letdown phase of retirement doesn’t last forever and it eventually learn how to live together, retirees begin to familiarize themselves with the landscape of their new circumstances and navigate their lives accordingly. This is easily the most problematic stage in the emotional retirement process and will take both time and conscious effort to achieve.
Phase 6: Routine, moving on
Finally, a new daily schedule is created, new marital ground rules for time together versus time alone are established and a new identity has been at least partially created. Eventually, the new landscape becomes a familiar territory, and retirees can enjoy this phase of their lives with a new sense of purpose.
In a sense, life planning is a vital key to successful retirement. Workers who have given serious time and thought to what they will do after they retire will normally experience a smoother transition than those who haven’t. Dreams and goals that cannot be achieved with a single trip or project may translate into long-term, part-time employment or volunteer work and event it extended until retirement. It is never too soon or too late to begin mapping out the course of the rest of your life.
