Retirement isn't just a financial transition. It's a psychological one. This week, we explore how to find purpose, identity and meaning in the 1,500 workless Tuesdays that may lie ahead.
Hi Bec. I listened to your podcast about meaningful retirement today while at the gym. I enjoy the conversations you have with people but it leaves me thinking a couple of things. Firstly ... is one of the problems that we don't have the right 'label' for what we are doing when we are in our 50s and have chosen to quit working in the 9-5? When can we claim to be retired? And do we even want to have it called retirement? Secondly ... quite a few of the stories that I hear and that are used by you and others in this space tend to be people who retire around the mid 60s and I wonder more about the primetime retirement pre-superannuation and what that really looks like.
And that's the point. Is it retirement if we are doing something? I feel like the word retirement needs to be changed. We need a word for the part of our life when we aren't in full-time employment, but we aren't unemployed or are we? Is it all about where our income comes from and what if that is from savings and not from super or the pension. Hence my dilemma with the term.
Generativity is incredibly important to our sense of meaning in our second half. So, hopefully, we’re all finding ways to be useful to people in our retirement. If so, then we’ve got something compelling to think about ourselves and to say about ourselves. I feel great saying I’m a writer and mentor, for instance.
Hi Bec. I listened to your podcast about meaningful retirement today while at the gym. I enjoy the conversations you have with people but it leaves me thinking a couple of things. Firstly ... is one of the problems that we don't have the right 'label' for what we are doing when we are in our 50s and have chosen to quit working in the 9-5? When can we claim to be retired? And do we even want to have it called retirement? Secondly ... quite a few of the stories that I hear and that are used by you and others in this space tend to be people who retire around the mid 60s and I wonder more about the primetime retirement pre-superannuation and what that really looks like.
Agreed. It’s so, so important to retire TO something!
And that's the point. Is it retirement if we are doing something? I feel like the word retirement needs to be changed. We need a word for the part of our life when we aren't in full-time employment, but we aren't unemployed or are we? Is it all about where our income comes from and what if that is from savings and not from super or the pension. Hence my dilemma with the term.
We do - it's your Prime Time!
Oh yes of course but now we need everyone to understand this and use it. Maybe as us genXers move through this phase things will change.
Generativity is incredibly important to our sense of meaning in our second half. So, hopefully, we’re all finding ways to be useful to people in our retirement. If so, then we’ve got something compelling to think about ourselves and to say about ourselves. I feel great saying I’m a writer and mentor, for instance.