Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl winner with New England and Tampa Bay, announced his retirement ... [+]
NFL champion quarterback Tom Brady retired last week. Some might just say it’s déjà vu all over again. Perhaps, but it shows that Brady may be the greatest of all time in football and more financially secure by several orders of magnitude, yet he’s a lot like the rest of us. Retirement is simply not as clear cut as it used to be. We need to plan for longevity, not the one-and-done retirement we think of today.
Retirement has been defined in the public consciousness as if it were one of Newton’s laws of physics. A certain age, selected almost arbitrarily in the 19th century and poured later into law around the world, has led many to believe that they have no choice but to withdraw from the workforce by age 60-something. Brochures, advertising, and popular culture reinforce the retirement narrative that has us do a hard stop and exit from the workplace on Friday afternoon and report to the pickleball court on Monday morning.
While stopping work altogether ultimately happens for all of us, there is a long stretch of life after 60-something causing many to rewrite their own retirement story with little or no guidance. In fact, unlike the the hard stop of retirement that previous generations experienced, just like Brady, many are finding that life in retirement has a lot of on-, off-, and on-again transitions.
Jim “retired” from the real estate business. Or as he puts it, “They offered me a package, so I took it.” He goes on to say, “At first it [retirement] was great. My wife and I traveled for a year or so. We did the cruise thing with our friends. Got a dog. But, after a year, I said, enough, I need to do something.” Jim began consulting back to the industry he knew well. He looks away and remarks, “You know, there are only so many times you can walk the dog and think that is your day. You need to do something to mix it [the day] up.”
Many people retire because they are simply tired of doing what they have done for decades. While they enjoy ending that chapter of their life, some people sadly discover that retirement also means leaving co-workers, who also are friends, behind. Ned describes himself as, “clicking over 80 years old.” “When I retired almost 20 years ago, I thought that was it, I am tired of the commute, the travel, the headaches. I am not sure I ever enjoyed my job. I do miss the people though; we were like family.” The New Jersey native admits he never imagined working in his 80s, but with a smile he says, “I am rounding out my second career. Who would have thought an old office guy would enjoy working in a store! It’s great. I meet all kinds of people, help them, and make them happy. That makes me happy too. I will retire someday, but not yet.”
Of course, many work past traditional retirement age for the money. Dawn, a rideshare driver in Fort Worth, Texas, shared her retirement story. I ask her, what is your plan for retirement? She smirked, looking at me in the mirror. “Retirement? That’s funny.” Looking back at the road, she says, “I moved down here to be close to my grandchildren.” She goes on, “But I want to have some play money and spend a little on them [grandchildren] too, so I work here and there, when I want. I can’t tell you how many different jobs I have had since I retired. Retirement isn’t cheap you know.”
People are finding retirement is far longer and more complex than commercials, brochures, and financial planning guides advertise. Retirement planning certainly entails financial considerations, but it also requires preparing for what you might do Monday morning after your last Friday afternoon at work.
Preparing for your retirement years means identifying the many different retirements you may have in what has been incorrectly defined as a single life stage and experience. Maybe it will be a traditional retirement, but maybe it won’t.
Identifying the alternatives and laying the groundwork early is a step above today’s idea of retirement planning. It is planning for the long game. It is longevity planning. Whether your “next” life chapter is enjoying well-earned time off, being with family, volunteering, working part time, full time, starting a business, going back to school, or even starting a new career, mapping out the possibilities long before Friday’s retirement bell rings requires real preparation. You might just find you are more like Tom Brady than you ever imagined. Not at football, but at retirement. Your retirement might be on, off, and on again, too.
