More Realistic Retirement Planning

Submitted to the Piney Woods Journal in 2019

My articles over the past four years for this journal have been on outdoors and environmental issues, but my academic and consulting background has actually been in the field of management and strategic planning.  A very few of you may recall a series of 24 weekly articles that I wrote for the Winnfield Enterprise back in 2012 and 2013 on strategic approaches for making important life decisions. 

A critical set of life decisions that the fortunate of us get to make involves the transition from a job or career into what used to be considered as our “retirement years.”  Recent discussions on retirement planning definitely seem more open-ended and complex than a generation or two ago.  Most of this discussion or advice still tends to focus on key financial aspects of planning for retirement.  Often this advice has direct or indirect sales intent to guide listeners into certain investment alternatives.  Certain important retirement concerns appear rarely and poorly explored, particularly if these concerns don’t seem related directly to financial decisions.  I’ll try to describe a few significant planning issues from the perspective of someone who has personally confronted many retirement-related questions.

The first step in any strategic plan is usually a careful assessment of one’s true desires, passions, or interests, as well as one’s talents, skills, and weaknesses.  Unfortunately, this personal assessment associated with our future retirement can yield some unreliable information.  Some huge mental and emotional impacts of retirement often cannot be readily anticipated and meaningfully applied for long-term planning purposes.   No matter the quantity or quality of our thoughts given to retirement beforehand, actually beginning the shift away from a long-term job or career can drastically change our basic planning assumptions.  This shift may even influence our own self-conception as a person.  We can fail to realize how much our work and career conditioning govern our assumptions about what we might need or want in retirement years.  A new freedom for some of us to reset our own goals and activities for retirement can be exciting and enriching, while for others this can be disorienting and confusing.  Prior to my father’s retirement as a paper mill electrician at age 62, he purchased a new boat and loads of fishing equipment anticipating that he would spend much more time on this hobby.  Yet he actually spent very little time boating and fishing in retirement, even compared to earlier.  His post-retirement attitudes and concerns seemed to crowd out his interest in boating and fishing then.  

We also should probably expect to encounter some shifting perspectives about marriage or relationship roles, as well as the nature of some of our personal friendships.  These shifting relationship viewpoints can be really magnified when significant others are also facing retirement changes.  Given some unknown and unanticipated shifts in personal and relationship interests that will likely occur with actual retirement doesn’t mean retirement planning beforehand, or later, has to be difficult or impossible.  It does suggest the need for “contingency” planning, more flexibility in making planning assumptions, and a willingness to return to the “drawing board” when health, relationship, or other major life changes are thrust upon us.

Many high-achievers suffer somewhat in their later life as they suspect or encounter gradual erosion of some of their earlier and very rewarding talents and abilities.  Arthur C. Brooks in a recent Atlantic magazine article explores some of these mental and emotional challenges that many confront.  He also discusses potential readjustments. Brooks claims that “As we grow older, we shouldn’t acquire more, but rather strip things away to find our true selves.”  We need to assess and selectively downsize from time to time our set of possessions, responsibilities and relationships trying to refine these and possibly find more sustaining ones.

Retirement can mean that our previous evaluations of our work-related activities and our non-work, recreational or leisure activities shift or blur.  We should try to understand better what have been the more fulfilling and satisfying, if somewhat hidden, attributes of our existing jobs or careers.  Can some of these more positive job-related characteristics be found also in certain volunteer, part-time or other work activities upon formal retirement?   Reading, research and perhaps education or training programs could suggest different and potentially exciting types of retirement pursuits.  Just because we spend much of our lives on one or a few chosen jobs or careers doesn’t mean we are restricted to finding fulfillment in only these pursuits.  Some of these discovered activities might even give us a chance to continue or increase our income or consumption levels instead of surviving on and depleting our savings.    

We should understand, and possibly take advantage, of an employer’s policies and options for work separation.  These work separation options might be offered and triggered at some suggested retirement age for employees.  In some cases, valued employees might be able to negotiate their own “leave taking” preferences, even if work separation options are not formally described or offered.  The option of “cold turkey” retirement might suit some, while others can find that working half- or part-time for months or years can allow them to more slowly and thoughtfully assess some of their retirement options.  I’ve known of a few employees who were considered of so much value to their employers that they were able to negotiate part-time jobs there well into their eighties.

There are many important retirement-related decisions to be made.  Health care choices that were previously associated with employer-employee benefits will likely need at least some adjustments and supplements.  Locational and housing needs are examples of other major concerns that demand thinking and coordination with other decisions. 

Retirement can offer extra time and an opportunity to develop healthier habits and routines that were neglected for decades in the hustle-bustle of demanding work-related responsibilities.  When we were younger and probably had fewer health challenges, we may have largely overlooked and not really felt the effect of poor dietary and fitness habits.  As we age, though, the quality of our lives seems more directly impacted by the health-related choices that we are making. We can be more strategic and make better lifestyle decisions even well into our later retirement years.