As we’re financial planners, we spend a lot of time talking to people who want to plan for their retirement, whether that’s in the next few years, or 20 years away! Something we stress is that it’s OK to plan financially for retirement, but you also need to psychologically plan for retirement.
Dr Riley Moynes, author of The Money Coach, did a TedX talk on the Four Phases of Retirement, and explains it better than most.
Note. He talks very slowly and methodically, so I recommend at least speed 1.25x, if not 1.5x. It’s only 13mins at normal speed.
I’ll let you watch the talk for yourself, but here’s the basic key points and phases.
The Four Phases of Retirement
With current life expectancies, you should expect to spend about 1/3 of your life in retirement. There will be a long time for things to change.
The 4 phases:
- The Vacation Phase – where you wake you when you want, do what you want and go where you want for as long as you want. You might go on one big campervan holiday or do 5 cruises – but the key is, you can do what you like. This might only last the first 1-2 years.
- The Loss Phase – when we feel loss and lost. We lose our routine, our identity, our relationships from work, our sense of purpose and for some, our sense of power – especially if you were a business owner or manager. This phase quite often leads to divorce, decline (physically) and sometimes depression.
- The Trial and Error Phase – trying to figure out what you are going to do with your time. You might join clubs, volunteer, sit on boards of charities or businesses as a Non Exec Director etc.
- The Reinvention Phase – you figure out exactly what you want to do, which gives you purpose and accomplishment and the drive to get out of bed in the morning.
If you make it to phase 4, these retirees are the ones who reportedly enjoy retirement the most.
But watch the video, where he expands on each and see what you make of it. Listening to someone who has been through it, and experienced it, might be better than listening to me or John telling you to plan psychologically plan for retirement just as much as financially.
And if you want to talk to someone who can financially help you plan for retirement, we might just be able to help. Give us a shout now to get planning for yourself