Don’t Reinvent Yourself. Reinvent Retirement.
By Karen and Erica
You just retired. Everyone wished you well, and expressed joy and envy that you now have time for yourself, so you can relax and enjoy life, free of the quotidian pressures that are part of life for career women.
Very nice of everyone, but–-what exactly do they think you are going to do for the next three decades? And why do they think that you–-a successful woman who made her way in a complex world-–now want to be free of pressure? Sure, you are glad to stop doing some of the boring daily tasks every career demands. But you thrived on challenges. And loved being part of the wider world. Why would you want to give all of that up?
The reason for the disconnect is that a lot of people visualize retirement as it was in the middle of the last century, when most retirees were men who had worked through a depression and two world wars, when life expectancy was much shorter, and when the very few years of post-career life were indeed seen as a time to play, preferably in the sun, on a beach or a golf course.
That’s not reality in the twenty-first century. Many of us, the women who fought to enter the workforce and then to be where the action is, will have a three decade runway ahead of us. Many of us will gladly give up the 24/7 life, and will embrace the freedom to take a long vacation and to go out to a matinee on a weekday. But the real freedom we have earned is the freedom to design our own third quarter–-a new gig that uses what we learned during our demanding careers as a base that allows us to take off in a new direction.
Post-career life is a time for reinvention–-but not reinvention of yourself. Reinvention of how retirement is done. You are a woman of experience and achievement, and you know how you want to live. You don’t have to shoehorn yourself into some outdated idea of retirement. Do retirement your way. Will you design clothes for women of our age? In the city of your dreams? Will you open a bookstore? Will you sail the ocean? Will you create wines with grapes from your own vineyard, in the hills of Napa?
The exciting truth is-–we are drawing on a clean slate. We are the first large generation of women who worked until we retired, and we are the first generation to benefit fully from health advances that allow us to be both mature and sentient. There are millions of us, so we can help each other. We have plenty of time for the next phase. And we are not starting at the beginning. Our careers gave us a formidable foundation to support whatever we want to build now.
So do what you have always done. Be you. And style your new post-career life to suit yourself.
When I retired in 2021 I thought about what my daily life would look like beforehand. I felt like a kid in a candy store – so many options! I focused on a few things – auditing classes at our university, joining our local library branch board, taking vacations with girlfriends and doing house updates that hadn’t been done in 20 years. Still thinking and planning for more but it is so wonderful to have the space and time that is truly my own!
I’ve worked for 25 yrs as a healthcare provider and before that a journalist. I’m truly perplexed about what the next stage will be like and how to feel needed but im not keen to spend my own finances on medical missions . Any thoughts?
My experience is similar. I’m thinking of private practice..but I have to admit it doesn’t appeal that much. And it’s deceptively complex. As far as writing.. feel age is a real detriment… really run into assumed obsolence from others. Healthcare is a swamp. I’m perplexed as well.
Thanks for sharing your stories. Donna, we don’t have any great ideas but we hope maybe someone reading your comment has some useful information for someone with your interesting background. Not sure where you live, but maybe greeting refugees arriving in your neighborhood might be a thought?
I retired in December 2021 and took a part time consulting gig for the first year while I work on my advanced yoga teacher certification and master gardener program. A year later I’m happy to leave consulting. I teach yoga, tend to my garden, continue my hobby as a glass artist and am about to undertake the project management of building a vacation home. My life is rich!
I retired from a 42 year care
I retired from a 42 yr career in Education (teaching and evaluation). Loved every day. Mostly spend days at gym taking classes . Will go back to a book club in the fall and living in Fl try to swim and go to the beach . My very structured career was certainly a different life but I did gave time to give my elderly mother before passing and basically do things w my husband or friends. Museums, lunches etc.
Just retired a few weeks ago….trying to understand what this new routine will look like, while watching that old life fade away. On the cusp is a bit perplexing, as I coupled leaving my 40 year career with selling our home and moving to our beach home. So much ahead and still to figure out.