Financial planning is not the only area that one needs to consider when preparing for retirement. When the structure of work ends it can raise many questions. Some examples of these questions are how should I spend my time, what if I get bored and don’t like being retired and/or will spending so much time together with my partner be a good thing or not. Some people thrive and enjoy being retired while others can slip into periods of self-doubt and even depression once retired.

1. Preparing for and Living a
Successful Retirement
February 8, 2018
Williams College
Presented by:
Richard Dufresne, MSW
Principal
Alliance Consulting HRD

2. Still Developing After All These Years
• Erik Erikson Stages of Development
• Intimacy vs isolation in early adulthood
• Generativity vs stagnation in middle adulthood
• Integrity vs. despair in late adulthood

3. Still Developing After All These Years
• Erik Erikson Stages of Development
• Integrity vs. despair in late adulthood
• Source:
Virtue Psychosocial Existential
Question
Example
Wisdom Integrity vs. Despair Is it okay to have
been me?
Reflecting on life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson%27s_stages_of_psychosocial_development

4. This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
Ashton Applewhite
• We all have fears about getting old
o Money; Illness; Being Alone
o Dementia/Alzheimer *
 A new study found that the dementia rate in Americans 65 and older fell by 24 percent
over 12 years, to 8.8 percent in 2012 from 11.6 percent in 2000. The results were
“statistically significant”.
 In 2000, people received a diagnosis of dementia at an average age of 80.7; in 2012, the
average age was 82.4
* Source: U.S. Dementia Rates Are Dropping Even as Population Ages. Gina Kolata NY Times NOV. 21, 2016

5. This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
Ashton Applewhite
• It is the anxiety we have about getting old and these fears impacts
one’s health and quality of life.
• We age in our own way in our own time and the changes are
incremental.
• We need to be aware of the negative messages we carry about
getting old.

6. Sexual Intimacy after 60
Article: Sex and Seniors: The 70-Year Itch By Loren Stein, M.A.
"There is no age limit on sexuality and sexual activity," reports Stephanie
A. Sanders, PhD, associate director of the sexual research group The
Kinsey Institute.
"Use it or lose it," says geriatrics expert Walter M. Bortz, 70, author of
three books on healthy aging as well as several studies on seniors'
sexuality.
https://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/aging-1/misc-aging-news-10/sex-and-seniors-the-70-year-itch-
647575.html
• January 20,2017

7. RETIREMENT:
THE SOCIAL PHENOMENON
• Hardly existed prior to the twentieth century.
• 19th century retirements, if they happened, were brief periods
of disease and disability prior to death.

8. RETIREMENT:
THE SOCIAL PHENOMENON
Factors involved in the development of the modern day retirement include:
◦ Population movement from rural farms to cities
◦ Increased life spans.
◦ Increased personal income.
◦ Advent of Social Security (law passed in 1935; first payment 1940 ),
◦ Advent of Medicare (law passed July 30, 1965; first able to sign-up for the
program on July 1, 1966)
◦ Company sponsored pension plans.

9. RETIREMENT:
THE SOCIAL PHENOMENON
Today retirement is recognized as a process
o One may take several approaches in pastimes, projects and other jobs to find
balance
o Finding the right fit of activity and leisure is a “work in progress”
Several common stages (Robert Atchley)

10. Stages of Retirement
1. Pre-Retirement
2. Retirement
• The “Honeymoon” phase; “Post-Retirement Euphoria”
• The “Immediate Retirement Routine”
• “Rest and Relaxation”
3. Disenchantment
4. Reorientation
5. Retirement Routine

11. “I Am Going to Work; See You Tonight”
“Going to work” not only
defines the physical place where
we spend 40-60 hours a week,
but it also defines the internal
place – emotional and
intellectual.
‘Going to work’ provides:
• Structure
• Income
• Purpose
• Application and Development of Skills
and Talents
• Relationships
• Opportunities

12. Self Inventory: What Will you Miss Most?
o Structure
o Meaning
o Community/Social Engagement
o Other?
“If I am only for myself, what am I?” (Rabbi Hillel)

13. Five Key Questions
1. Will my life be meaningful when I no longer go to work?
2. Where will my sense of achievement and satisfaction come from
after I retire?
3. What aspects of my work and the work setting will I miss the
most after I retire?
4. What will I NOT miss at work when I retire?
5. How will I structure my time once I retire?

14. Questions One and Two
1. Success is not happiness
2. Finding happiness is success
Albert Schweitzer and Dalai Lama

15. If I Am Happy and Satisfied Should I Retire?
Individual is unique
When is the right time for me?
I would like to retire but….
Retirement is about endings and loss as well as new beginnings
It is best to retire to something not from something

16. Data from Transamerica
Center for Retirement Studies
2016 Survey of 4,162
 66% plan to work past age 65
◦ Enjoy work
◦ Feel financial need to work
 25 % plan to work until a certain age and/or reach financial goals

17. Data from Transamerica
Center for Retirement Studies
Of the 66% who plan to work past age 65, 39 % seeking work that
◦ Less demanding
◦ Flex hours
◦ Part time
Are work places structured to allow such arrangements and is it
more costly to keep employees over the age of 65?

18. Study of 71 Professors: Demographics
Ages 70 to 74
o17 employed
o54 retired
All scored 90 % or higher on “Satisfaction with Life” scale

19. Study of 71 Professors
77% of those who remained
employed reported they enjoyed the work

20. Study of 71 Professors
Those who retired reported
oIt was time (35%)
oTo do other things (35%)
oChanges in the work environment
oTired of the work
oHealth

21. More Key Questions *
1. What does the word “retirement” mean to me?
2. What are my thoughts about if, when and how to retire?
3. Who am I if I am not who I use to be?
* Sources: “The Couple’s Retirement Puzzle”
Roberta Taylor, RNCS, MED and Dorian Mintzer, MSW, PhD AND
Source Books; Naperville, IL 2014 and
“The Road to Character” David Brooks
Random House; New York
2015

22. 2 Potential Challenges

23. FAMILY DYNAMICS
o Too much time together
o Role definition
o Grand-parenting issues
o Conflicts in vision
o Confronting illness, loss, widowhood

24. FAMILY DYNAMICS: Tips
1. Talk to your partner about his/her vision for retirement and:
o spending time together
o household roles and responsibilities
2. If you are grandparents talk to your children about your needs
and expectations and their needs and expectations regarding
child care and family time overall.

25. FAMILY DYNAMICS
1. Conflicts in vision
• “I always wanted to…”
• Do we have to do everything together to be happy?
• Legacy, history and future ~ to be shaped through conversation, experimentation
2. Confronting illness, loss, widowhood
• What is the plan?
• Who is going to take care of us?

26. Living Solo
1. Having little or no family network can be good thing.
2. Being alone does not mean being lonely.
3. Engagement with activities and others to meet one’s social
and personal needs is required. Degree of engagement
varies.

27. Challenge 2 ~ Lack of a Personal Plan
(or at least an idea of a plan to get started)
o Goals
o Activities
o Pace
o Patience with self

28. Those Who are “Successful” in Retirement
1. Frequent exercise
2. Make life better for others (altruism)
3. Being close and in love with their partner
4. Strong family/ community connection
5. Strong friend network
6. Learning and growing

29. 10 Factors that Contribute to
Successful Aging: George Valliant 2002 Results
1. Regular exercise (Genetics not a major factor)
2. No smoking
3. Moderate alcohol use
4. Seeking and maintaining positive relationships
5. Being interested in the wellbeing of others

30. 10 Factors that Contribute to
Successful Aging: George Valliant 2002 Results
6. Sense of humor
7. Intellectual curiosity
8. Graceful acceptance of one’s limitations
9. Appreciating the past but living in the present
10. Focus on the “good things and good people”

31. Retirement and Mortality
• Does being retired make one think more about one’s
mortality?
• Awareness that life is finite actually results in people living
more “in the moment” and becoming more emotionally
satisfied with one’s life. (Based on research by Laura Carstensen, psychologist Stanford University)
Resource: “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” Atul Gawande; Metropolitan
Books, NY,NY; 2014

32. Retirement and Mortality
1. Maintaining the independent self as long as possible is the goal.
2. Acknowledge and accept that bodies do deteriorate and change as we age.
Managing these changes in order to live a healthy and satisfying life is the
charge.
3. Focus on the pleasures of what you still have and less on the losses.
4. Even when dependent and in need of assistance, continue to craft your life
as a life worth living.
5. When you focus on the here and now as well as everyday pleasures,
happiness follows.
Resource: “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” Atul Gawande; Metropolitan Books, NY,NY; 2014

33. 4 Key Steps to Prepare for Retirement
1. List all your fears and questions.
2. Think about your future and ask yourself, “If I was to retire what
would my day look like?”
3. Share your thoughts, ideas, questions and fears with your
partner/spouse/friend/trusted advisor.
Your change is also a change for your spouse/partner and family.
4. Be ready to discuss your thoughts and to include others’ needs
and wishes.

34. Final Thoughts
1. See Retirement as a journey and not an event.
2. Experiment and be patient.
3. No time in life is stress free and “perfect”.
4. Get help as you develop your plan.