Managing entry into retirement. Planning to live in happiness.

1. RETIREMENT MINDSET Management
IT IS ABOUT More than Money?
CPA Kandole Patrick

2. Just thinking?
• Are you happy Working under employment income?
• You like your job description and title?
• Everything is provided at month end and you have no
worries about domestic expenses… you are sorted!
• Have you thought of retiring? How do you feel about
it?
– The end of living?
– A new beginning?
– Freedom at last?
• You now FEAR retirement? THE FEAR
FACTOR!!!!

3. Mind set reactions
• There are two emotions specifically associated
with the stress response:
– FEAR-What is fear? What causes fear?
– ANGER- what is anger?
• Fear promotes the urge to run and hide
• Anger produces the urge to fight.

4. Attitude
• Those with Positive attitudes about
retirement and aging were less likely to have
problems in specific areas such as memory,
hearing and depression/anxiety
• Negative effects are larger if the retirement
was involuntary
• People with more positive attitudes on aging
and retirement live an average of 80+ years

5. What are you giving up?
• Understanding what will be missing helps
you to plan for how to fill the void.
– So what will you miss most?
– Identity - Are you what you do? Fear to be a
former administrative secretary? A former
director?

6. • What changes have you gone trough from age 22 to now?
• Did you manage the challenges?
• So do you still fear change in retirement?
• What is the key to transitioning? = setting goals
• Know yourself for better planning

7. Insight is Key
• Do you see new friends after retiring?
• How will your finances be if you retired
now?
• What do your family/friends say about your
retiring?
• What gives you a sense of meaning and
purpose in life?
• How do your retirement plans connect with
your thinking here
• Understanding what will change can help you
set goals on how to fill those losses

8. Who Do you want to be?
1. Continuers – remain in work setting to a lesser
extent
Pros – Not much has changed, less to adapt to
Cons - May miss other opportunities
2. Adventurers – take risks and try new things
Pros – Excitement and learning
Cons - Risk of failure
3. Searchers – more passive about their new
interests and flexible if things do not work out
Pros – Open-mindedness
Cons - Frustration if a lot of time is wasted without
ever finding the “true path”

9. Who Do you want to be?
4. Easy gliders - take it one day at a time, without
any concrete plan or goals
Pros – Freedom to do whatever you wish
Cons - Lack of structure can lead to boredom or
reliance on other negative behaviors (watching too
much TV, alcohol/drugs, etc.)
5. Retreaters – leave work life and chose not to try
anything new, which can only lead to negative
behaviors and risk of depression
Need planning: the HEAD, the BODY and HEART

10. Who are you?
1. IDENTIFY- know the person you are so
that you know what type of activities will
provide fulfillment
2. PLAN-Begin planning your activities to address
Head, Heart and Body
• Why are you thinking about retirement now? Do
you really want to retire?
• Have you attended a retirement preparation
seminar on financial and social planning?
• Have you developed any outside interests, hobbies,
volunteer activities or any areas of new learning

11. HEAD: Choose Your Attitude
• Choose activities that enrich your
mental attitude and brain power to
improve mental functioning?
– Read, mental games, discussions…Tv?
Chess game, dance?
Be positive and optimistic , no negative
thoughts. Focus on what you are looking forward
to, Think about all those fantasies you had about life
without work [ read Looking Forward: An Optimist’s
Guide to Retirement by Ellen Freudenheim]

12. HEAD: Choose Your Attitude
• Recognize past accomplishments, Taking
stock of your successes builds confidence
when you run into difficulties during this new
adjustment
• Daily gratitude journal, Listing one thing that
you are grateful for everyday prevents you
from taking things for granted

13. HEAD: Choose Your Attitude
• Live now on income you’ll have then,
frugality now, Decreases the shock of the
changes that will occur
Find activities that are meaningful- Spirituality
,Volunteerism, community engagements, be
alive.
– volunteering increases happiness, life satisfaction,
self-esteem, physical and mental health, and life span

14. HEART: The Importance of Social Support
• Those with more social support tend to get ill
less
• People with a better support network have
less problems with mental illness
• The larger the number of social relationships
and time spent with those friends, the longer
people tended to live

15. HEART: The
Importance of
Social Support
• Treat your social life like
your investment portfolio, so
you are covered for all
events, get more social
support
– get ill less
– less problems with mental illness
– Longer life due to socializing
• Social activities and friends
– High energy/high mobility- Walking,
biking? Aerobics?
– Low energy/low mobility- indoor
games? Comedy? outings

16. HEART
Ways to Build New
Social Networks
• Get out of the house
• Find old friends
• Join groups that meet
to discuss a special
interest / hobby /
passion
• Community on
computer
• Mentor youth
• Travel with a group
• Join professional group

17. BODY exercise
exercise
• Benefits and Strengths
– Builds muscles,
– increases metabolism to
keep weight and blood
sugar in check which is
important to combat two of
the biggest health problems
as we age – diabetes and
obesity,
– stable moods,
– brain power,
– Confidence
– Avoid disabling falls

18. BODY
• Flexibility
– Stretching helps prevent
tearing in muscles and
ligaments
• Endurance
– Increasing heart and
breathing rate at least 30
minutes a day has shown
to improve stamina and
delays, or prevents, the
development of diabetes,
colon cancer, heart disease
and stroke

19. BODY – Healthier Living
“I don’t have time for that!”Healthy habits
• Think about taking the extra time that
you will have to build healthy habits
– Stop smoking
– Exercise regularly
– Lose weight
– Get medical screenings
– Accident proof your home
– Eat nutritious meals

20. Eat healthy

21. Final thoughts
• “Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of
self will require not just small adjustments in your way of
living and thinking but a full-on metamorphosis.”
- Martha Beck (life coach)
• “To exist is to change, to change is to mature,
to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
- Henri Louis Bergson
• Remember that your plan should incorporate the
Head Heart Body
• Begin by asking questions that will give you a
better understanding of yourself.

22. Retirement Mindset Management
Mwisho
CPA Kandole Patrick