Journey Through the 6 Stages of Retirement

[Midpack]

Obviously the experience is (very) different for each of us, but an easy reading summary. This is the part I encourage pre-retirees to give some thought to...

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Life planning is an important key to successful retirement. Workers that have given serious time and thought to what they will do after they retire will generally experience a smoother transition than those who haven't. But it is never too soon to begin mapping out the course of the rest of your life.

Journey Through The 6 Stages Of Retirement

[W2R]

Interesting article. Thanks.

From the article, stages 4 on sound pretty grim. But here's a description of the third phase:

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3. Honeymoon Phase - I'm Free! Of course, honeymoons follow more than just weddings. Once the retirement celebrations are over, a period often follows where retirees get to do all the things that they wanted to do once they stopped working, such as travel, indulge in hobbies, visit relatives and so forth. This phase has no set time frame and will vary depending upon how much honeymoon activity the retiree has planned.

NO WONDER I'm still stuck in Phase 3. When it comes to those things that I wanted to do once I stopped working, I have enough left to last 5 lifetimes. I am never going to feel "let down" or wonder, "Is this all there is?" because there is so much more that I want/need to do now that I have stopped working.

[REWahoo]

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Originally Posted by W2R NO WONDER I'm still stuck in Phase 3.

Yep, in a couple of days I'll celebrate six seven years stuck in Phase 3!

[Nords]

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Originally Posted by REWahoo Yep, in a couple of days I'll celebrate six years stuck in Phase 3!

I thought there were only three stages to begin with...

[obgyn65]

I guesss I am stuck in stage 1...

[Midpack]

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Originally Posted by Nords I thought there were only three stages to begin with...

If you do it right, there may only be 1 thru 3 and then 6, you can avoid 4 & 5. I suspect folks who retire without plans and/or just to escape something, might have to work through all six...

[MichaelB]

Another one stuck in stage 3. No disenchantment, no new identity. Also no complaints.

[Bestwifeever]

I think this guy just made this stuff up.

[DayDreaming]

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"Retirees must face what is essentially the last transition in their lives."

Nice article but I completely disagree with that one statement. I don't feel like retirement is the last transition to anything - it's just one more step along the journey, and I've never had much of a clue where this journey is taking me. And I like it that way!

[Brett_Cameron]

It is pretty simplistic. I remember a short period of time after FI and before RE after I made the decision to RE of a general letdown. It was blasted away by RE. There was another short period after RE where it was "Holy Crap! What have I done?"

Good summary but not entirely applicable to my real life journey.

[Dawg52]

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Originally Posted by REWahoo Yep, in a couple of days I'll celebrate six seven years stuck in Phase 3!

Damn, you must be getting old.

[happy2bretired]

I have a touch of stage four but hopefully working on stage 5.

[REWahoo]

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Originally Posted by Dawg52 Damn, you must be getting old.

Unlike you, I haven't figured out a way to 'hold' at 52...

[scrabbler1]

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Originally Posted by MichaelB Another one stuck in stage 3. No disenchantment, no new identity. Also no complaints.

Same here. There isn't any stage after #3.

Because I worked PT for 7 years before I ERed, I had begun several activities with my added time I could not do while I worked FT. By the time I ERed, I was working only 2 days a week so to go from that to working zero days a week was not huge change to my daily lifestyle, just ridding myself of the "nuisance" to my weekly schedule called "working." Switching from FT to PT back in 2001 was a bigger change because it enabled me to partake in those activities to begin with. That was the big transition, not as much ERing.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by JoeDreaming Nice article but I completely disagree with that one statement. I don't feel like retirement is the last transition to anything - it's just one more step along the journey, and I've never had much of a clue where this journey is taking me. And I like it that way!

+1 Good observation, and I couldn't agree more. My life is still unfolding and changing. Just because I am retired, doesn't mean that I have one foot in the grave, so naturally the journey continues.

Another quote that I disagree with is this, taken from the description of Stage 5:

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Perhaps the most difficult aspects of this stage to manage are the inevitable self-examination questions that must be answered once again, such as "Who am I, now?", "What is my purpose at this point?" and "Am I still useful in some capacity?"

"Am I still useful" and "what is my purpose" imply that I am not really a human being with innate worth that I express every day in everything that I do, but instead some sort of tool that has no value unless being used (useful to whom? comes to mind). To me discussion of Stage 5 is a continuation of the type of societal brainwashing that keeps so many working when they don't have to work or want to work. I will state here and now that I do not believe that one's self-worth must or even should depend upon returning to the salt mines day after day. Furthermore, I think it is sad, though understandable, that so many people fall for this line of thought after a lifetime of societal conditioning..

[unclemick]

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Originally Posted by Dawg52 Damn, you must be getting old.

18 years - I wa layed off at age 49. The plan was early retirement at 63.

Phases, PHASES!! I don need no stinking phases!



heh heh heh - Interesting article.

[Chuckanut]

As a single person, I guess I am stuck at stage 3 forever. Not so bad.

[Mulligan]

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Originally Posted by W2R +1 Good observation, and I couldn't agree more. My life is still unfolding and changing. Just because I am retired, doesn't mean that I have one foot in the grave, so naturally the journey continues. Another quote that I disagree with is this, taken from the description of Stage 5: "Am I still useful" and "what is my purpose" imply that I am not really a human being with innate worth that I express every day in everything that I do, but instead some sort of tool that has no value unless being used (useful to whom? comes to mind). To me discussion of Stage 5 is a continuation of the type of societal brainwashing that keeps so many working when they don't have to work or want to work. I will state here and now that I do not believe that one's self-worth must or even should depend upon returning to the salt mines day after day. Furthermore, I think it is sad, though understandable, that so many people fall for this line of thought after a lifetime of societal conditioning..

Amen, W2R! Useless pseudo intellectual psycho babble talk for stage 5. I never had a goal in retirement until now. And that will be to never make it to stage 5.

[Chuckanut]

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Originally Posted by W2R I will state here and now that I do not believe that one's self-worth must or even should depend upon returning to the salt mines day after day. Furthermore, I think it is sad, though understandable, that so many people fall for this line of thought after a lifetime of societal conditioning..

W2R, obviously you are a dangerous radical!

[Bestwifeever]

The author is a CFP (and I clicked on his name to see what more-recent articles he has on that site--the most interesting one spoke to other planners about ways to increase their prospects now that the no-call list has limited cold calls; he suggests tax preparation and mortgage brokering, not to bring in money, but to give planners access to personal financial information that the potential planning clients might be loath to provide otherwise. Ick).

For us the stages of retirement so far are:
Leave work.
Worry a little.
Euphoria.
Euphoria.
Euphoria.