“What happens next?”
Retirement isn’t the end of the story. It’s when you start to live life on your own terms.
For most of us, life has always been mapped out for us – school, further education, and finally a job/career.
We didn’t have to think about filling our diary – it was filled for us – and those odd hours and days of leisure that we had were automatically filled with family and friends, holidays and hobbies.
But then something strange happens; we retire. And suddenly all of the structure we’re so used disappears.
Great! Now we have the ‘luxury of time’ and can do what we want, when we want.
There’s just one potential drawback, having more time isn’t the same as knowing what to do with it.
So, what does life after work actually look like?
That’s an easy question to answer, isn’t it?
We now just enjoy ourselves, do whatever we want and have a pension and savings to help us do just that.
But it’s not quite that simple. Whether we like it or not, work gave us a framework (Monday-Friday, 9-5), purpose, a label to describe ourselves, a way to measure our worth and even social connections.
Remove that and, all of a sudden, we have to create our own strategy to get us out of bed on a Tuesday morning, decide on ways to connect with other people, and find our identity (without a work title) and some sort of validation.
Surely there must be a ready-made plan that we can follow which addresses all of these questions?
Unfortunately not.
There is no one right way to ‘do retirement’ and, even when you find a plan that works for you, it still needs to be refined over time.
Some people choose to use a sport or a hobby as a cornerstone of this new stage in their lives, others prefer voluntary work, or set themselves new challenges, maybe travel and/or join various clubs. Others just enjoy the opportunity to follow an unstructured approach, leaving each day to unfurl as it comes along.
Both the best, and the most daunting, aspect of retirement is that the choice is totally yours.
Retirement isn’t just a financial event, it’s the chance to change nearly every aspect of your life.
Rookie Retiree’s Perspective
Working up to retirement, I’d done all of those sensible things that are required for a ‘happy retirement’. I’d sorted out my pension, and associated financials, and just assumed that the rest would take care of itself.
It was then that I realised that there was so much more to this stage of our lives and strangely, no one really talks about it.
There were plenty of people happy to talk about all of the financial aspects of retirement but what about the rest?
How do you create some sort of structure when nobody is expecting you to turn up at 9am?
What happens to your sense of identity when you can no longer introduce yourself by what you do?
How do you stay connected when many workplace friends fade from your social life?
What do you do with all that freedom?
And perhaps most importantly:
What makes this next chapter feel like you’re living life rather than just no longer having to work?
Well, the truth is that there are no definitive answers.
This blog is there to talk about all of the important, non-financial elements of retirement – and it leaves finance and pensions to other people.
I don’t believe that retirement has to mean accepting a smaller world, being less valuable/useful or that it heralds a loss of zest for life, learning or curiosity. I actually believe the total opposite.
But this blog isn’t just about what I think.
Whilst I’m happy to share my decisions – and some of the good and not-so-brilliant outcomes – I also share the experience, thoughts and approaches of many fellow rookie retirees.
So why not join us?
Explore the Rookie Retiree Journal
GETTING STARTED
👉The Start
The moment when retirement stops being an abstract concept and becomes something you’re actually living.
👉Foundations & Structure
What happens when the working week no longer provides the framework for your life?
FINDING YOUR FEET
👉Finding Fulfillment after 9–5
Work can provide purpose and achievement. What happens when it no longer does?
👉Use It or Lose It
Time is one of retirement’s greatest luxuries. But if we stop exercising mind and body, how can we make the best use of this stage of life?
👉Resolutions vs Resets
A different way of thinking about making changes when you have more freedom to choose what comes next.
THE THINGS NOBODY TELLS YOU
👉Things Nobody Tells You
Retirement doesn’t always turn out quite the way the brochures suggest. Sometimes there are things that we don’t expect.
👉IT & Technology
Finishing work means that we can ditch a lot of business-related items. But maybe leaving behind all technology isn’t a good idea.
WHERE NEXT?
LIFE AFTER WORK overlaps with almost everything else we explore at Rookie Retiree.
You may also want to explore CONNECTION & RELATIONSHIPS, TRAVEL & ADVENTURE, GIVING BACK & CONTRIBUTING or REAL STORIES (from people discovering their own versions of retirement.)
Retirement doesn’t have to mean that life has to grow smaller. It can mean the exact opposite.
Where this journey takes you is down to you.