Ten Things We Have We Learned Since We Founded Lustre.

By Karen and Erica

We founded Lustre almost ten years ago, as a passion project to change the way retirement works for women who want to stay connected to the world.

What have we learned since then? Here are ten of many things.

1. Lots of women feel as we did when retirement comes down on their heads—untethered, lost, uncertain, wondering who they were and where they were going. They are glad, as we were, to find others going through the same drama—to learn that none of us is alone.
2. Lots of women do not feel remotely as we did. These women are thrilled from the first minute they retire. They look at us and feel sorry for us, thinking we were so driven by work we never had good lives and now are indeed lost. They are wrong about us—but we’re happy they are right about themselves.
3. Sometimes these differences are temporal. Some women start out glad to be free of the rat race. We sure were. Things didn’t get weird until we were many months in. But then we realized we needed more. Some women stay content. We suspect those who loved their jobs, as we did, are more likely to mourn their loss than those whose jobs weighed them down mercilessly, as many did.
4. If you do want more than permanent R&R–good news!  There is vibrant life after retirement. You will have to work at it, but that’s part of the fun. When we started retirement, we hoped that was true. Now we know it is true.
5. In the same vein—at first, we were shocked and dismayed that overnight we had become invisible. We had accomplished something remarkable—a long career—and then we disappeared. But then we learned that many of us are perfectly happy to be unseen—thrilled to be able to do whatever they want without being seen. We still can’t figure that out.  Maybe because during our careers we were not plagued by paparazzi?
6. So many of us are doing something they dreamed about but never imagined would be more than a dream. One friend became a flight attendant—in her sixties. Another wrote a Broadway play—also in her sixties. Another travels literally all the time, with her husband—moving every six months with a single suitcase, taking odd jobs, seeing the world and having a ball. One ran for office—and won. Brilliant role models do exist!
7. We did not know much about the relationship between physical activity and brain fitness. We never expected to be doing strength training in our seventies to keep our minds sharp. Now we do! And we know many of you do too.
8. Healthy longevity has become a reality. It has given many of us decades of unexpected life. Now we need to ensure that healthy longevity becomes a reality for everyone. And—we need to address the ramifications.  We need to finance all those decades, and we need to be useful, and we need to completely change our preconceptions of the relationship between years and age.
9. Many of us retired into a world of obligations—to aging parents, to needy children or grandchildren. Many of us could use some help with a confusing world that is new to us. Happily, there are smart people thinking about how to help—by connecting caregivers with services, using technology to make it easier to find things like Medicare plans and living facilities for older adults.
10. We have been quite surprised that business still appears not to see us as an ideal market—or any market. Why do we care? Because businesses advertise. They can show us as the vibrant women we are. They can show us as stooped older women with canes. Or they can refuse to show us at all. If they showed more of us the way we are, everyone would benefit. We’ll keep at it!

Thanks to all of you who share this journey with us. Hearing from you, and getting to know you, has been one of the best parts of the whole experiment.

Do tell us what you have learned along the way. And let’s have some fun in 2026!