The New Retirement (or whatever it SHOULD be called)
Charles C. Jett
Ten thousand (+) Americans retire every day.
While retirement in the past marked the
beginning of the end of life, nowadays it might be better described as the end
of midlife.
Retirement nowadays lasts decades – far longer
than we spent in schools and, in some cases, longer than we spent in our
careers.
Increasing longevity and the changing nature of
work requires more radical rethinking of life stages.
The language people have grown to use about
retirement is, at best, far from clear or realistic.
“Retirement” connotes a retreat from battle or a
step back to safer ground – a concept that does not capture the range of
retirement adventures that many embark upon today.
The old perspective on life stages might require
rethinking – such as abandoning the old school – work – retirement timeline to
spreading periods of wok, education and sabbatical throughout our lives.
The challenge of those who are turning
sixty-five (about 12,000 per day in the United States) will be to figure out
what to do with the expected thirty more years of life that they face.
Most people who have led active lives are “not
good at” doing nothing, and “don’t like” doing nothing. This puts them in a
position where they eventually become miserable – and they die. (For those of
you who are familiar with the “Doom Loop,” this is “Q4.”)
Planning on ways to move away from “Q4” is the key
to a happy and productive retirement.
