REPLACE YOUR WORK AND RETIRE HAPPY

          Do you know that you will need to replace that activity called “work” when you retire? Whether your image of retirement is the old image of leisure-filled days doing nothing or the new retirement image of continued purposeful activity and involvement, one of the most important issues to think about before you retire is how you are going to replace the many intangible benefits that your current work provides.

Now I know some of you work primarily for the financial benefits. Perhaps you can hardly wait to stop working. That’s not uncommon. Nevertheless, you will definitely need to understand the other benefits of work that you will be losing if you want to enjoy your retirement. In contrast, you may be someone who loves what you do so much that you plan to work until you drop and you may expect you will never have to think about any of this. Sorry. You will need to address these issues eventually because, in all likelihood, someday you will have to cut back or stop working. Finally, if you are a typical worker or professional, you will begin to cut back on your work around age 58 - 60 and perhaps “retire” totally from the job later. But you still may do something part-time to bring in some money and keep you active as long as you are able. If this last description fits you, then you need to think about replacing some of the less tangible benefits of work too.

Work provides five important benefits that you need to replace when you retire. Finding ways to replace them greatly increases the chances that you will be satisfied with your retirement. Here’s what work provides.

First, work rewards you financially. Now that’s a no-brainer and I will briefly say that money is the reward many think about and a benefit that, hopefully, you have given adequate attention to replacing.

Have you considered the second benefit, though, which is time-management? Your job or profession usually dictates when you get up, when you eat, when you spend time with your family, when you play, and when you rest. Your work provides structure to your life and you will need to find a new structure whenever you reduce or stop working. Trust me on this – your spouse is not the one to provide the structure. If you want to make the most of this fantastic opportunity called “retirement,” then you and your spouse will both need to relearn how to structure your lives.

The next benefit of work is your sense of usefulness. Humans have an inherent need to feel useful and meaningful and your work probably fills that need in an important way. You will need to develop a purpose for your life to replace this work benefit because you get your sense of usefulness and meaning in life by fulfilling a purpose that is valuable to you. You will need to think this through on a very personal level, and it’s sometimes useful to prepare a mission statement for retirement with this very important factor in mind.

Work also contributes to your status within your community. Perhaps you never thought about status, but your work tends to define how you fit into society – what your role is. Dr. Richard Johnson (Johnson, 2001) calls status “…that combined sense of personal worth and identity we derive from knowing who and what we are.” Although status is like a hidden undercurrent in this country, it is always there and you may not even notice it unless you loose it. You will need to think about how important this factor is to you and how you intend to address it.

The final benefit of your work is the social connectedness it provides. You make friends at work and probably spend time with some of them outside of work. If you work long hours, work may even determine your entire social network. You will need to find ways to maintain some of your work friendships as well as ways to make new friends. You might very well find that your work friendships dwindle as you move into the new phase of your life and develop new interests. You will find that you need to stay connected with both old and new friends and learn new ways to structure your life so that can happen. This will take some effort and will stretch you, but then stretching is good for you.

Work provides a great deal besides money. I know I was surprised when I first learned about all of the factors that I needed to address in order to experience a successful and fulfilling retirement. I honestly believe, and the experts agree, that if you start preparing well ahead of time to replace these work benefits you will have a much better chance of making a good transition to retirement and of thoroughly enjoying what should be some of the best years of your life.

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