What is Retirement?

Introduction

In this new blog series, we're going to look at the run-in to retirement after a life of building wealth, but as we start, I want to ask the important question – what is retirement? If you’ve ever done athletics races of more than 100 metres, you’ll know the feeling of rounding the last corner and seeing the finish line ahead of you – the home straight.

The end is in sight, all the effort you’ve put in has come to this, and now you have to make a final push to finish the journey well. No matter how near or far you are from that point, there is much to be applied to your current efforts by learning about the end game. Indeed, knowing how things need to end can help you to get into the best position to get there, and even get there earlier than you might think.

What You Need to KNOW 

We'll be looking at what you need to know more in the next post, but for now, let's examine the word ‘retirement' and what that means for different people.

Retirement is a Tarnished Word

We all know that retirement used to mean one day, at the end of your working life, you got a handshake from the chairman after 45 years of working for the same firm, a carriage clock and a pension which died with you, which was probably less than five years later.

For some folks, this is still kind-of true, just with the benefit of longer lifespans. But for most of us, this bears no resemblance to what we experience of retirement. Most of us have had multiple jobs and maybe even multiple careers.

We likely have pots of money all over the place, which we’ve amassed in various roles. We'll probably live for 20, 30 or even 40 years from the point at which we finally give up working for salary.

All of my clients who are retired are always busy. If they are not running around after grandchildren, they are volunteering at various charities or community groups, going off for long weekends in the camper van or sailing boat or flying to Nepal or Machu Picchu for trekking holidays.

They’re up at 7am to go swimming in the sea and bowling every hour god sends, or they are picking up new hobbies and excelling at them. They are healthy and active and for the most part, very happy.

Many of my clients of retirement age are not retired at all but continue to work, often in the businesses they have built themselves, and are as happy and fulfilled as they have ever been. While retirement means different things to different people, and even though it does still conjure up images of what it used to be like, I am still going to use that word throughout this blog series.

I could've opted for something nauseating like “going work-optional” (I actually heard that recently) but I’ll likely interchange the word retirement with financial independence, but for the most part, we’ll still use the word retirement to talk about that final third of life when hopefully you’ve amassed enough to be able to choose what you do for the rest of your life.

You can find part two of this series here, but if you missed the end of the last topic, it's here.