“A Second Life”: What a retirement plan looks like today

The new retirement

For the past 50 years, retirement commercials have been promoting the “ideal couple” living the “ideal lifestyle” on the beach or the golf course. But this is nonsense. Not every retiree wants to live like that, nor can every retiree afford to. 

Watching such commercials causes retirees a lot of stress. Deep down, most people know that retirement—including theirs—won’t look like that. The problem is, most of them have no idea what their retirement will look like. We need to stop watching and believing those hackneyed, clichéd retirement commercials because they will limit our imagination about what we can do and who we can become.

The retirement distribution curve

As the distribution curve shows, many people, through choice or otherwise, are deviating from the old twentieth century model of full-stop leisure-based retirement, where they suddenly slow down and take it easy; this retirement model is becoming less common because it is outdated and no longer works. In fact, the word “retirement” is far too narrow and is not a good descriptor for what many people are doing today. We need to recognize that and replace it with a better term that reflects what is truly happening and what is possible. Personally, I’m a fan of the term “second life.” 

Our “first” life is all about learning, earning and achieving. It involves going to school and then working hard for the next thirty-five-plus years, trying to make as much money as we can to support our family and put some money aside for retirement. Our second life begins when we decide to leave our primary career behind and retire; or maybe that decision is made for you, like it was for me by my employer. The prospect can be terrifying and confusing—or full of possibilities if you plan for it carefully. 

Retirement has traditionally been viewed as a finish line achieved after many years of working; in contrast, your second life could be seen as a starting line—a new beginning—a chance at an awesome “second life” based on an optimum mix of work, play and adventure. Like they say, it all depends on how you look at things. 

A new study released in May 2022 by Age Wave and Edward Jones, “Longevity and the New Journey of Retirement,” confirms that the way people view retirement is changing rapidly. It’s really important to recognize that retirement is just a phase that was invented, it’s not a natural progression or an essential stage of life. Polling showed that only 27% see it as a time for rest and relaxation, while 55% viewed it as “a new chapter of life.” And 59% of the people polled “want to work in some way during their retirement. They view retirement as an ideal mix of work and leisure. Their primary motivations for working are to stay mentally engaged and financially comfortable.” 

If you approach it right, your second life can be your best life; a period of personal renaissance. Your second life can be more creative, more meaningful and more adventurous than your first life was. Think of it as the payoff for all those years of hard work. 

As much as I don’t like the word “retirement,” you will still see us using the word repeatedly throughout the book because people are used to that term. But as you read through, think in terms of your second life. Thinking like that will get you excited and give you something positive to work towards.

Questions for self-reflection

• What kind of retiree are you?
• Where on the bell curve are you in terms of your second life?
• If you’re stuck in the large middle, what are you going to do to clarify your vision of retirement?
• When you leave your primary career or employment behind (if you haven’t already), will you have crossed the finish line of retirement, or will you just be embarking on your second life—the ultimate adventure?

Takeaways

• There is such a wide variance for what different people want and need in retirement. Everyone has their own personal definition of what a great second life looks like.
• People are taking different approaches to retirement depending upon their personal experiences, needs, wants and financial circumstances. There is no one correct answer. Everyone must figure out what will work for them so they can thrive in retirement.
• Traditional full-stop retirement isn’t everyone’s goal, and many people don’t want to slow down and take it easy. They want to stay engaged, grow and experience new things.
• The tide is changing, and more and more people are waking up to the fact that they don’t want a retirement based on all leisure and no work.
• Many people, including those with a lot of money, are choosing not to retire because it would bore them.
• Because of increasing longevity, the era of traditional full-stop retirement to a life of leisure is over; most of us can’t afford it for the next twenty- or thirty-plus years and, more importantly, that traditional retirement lifestyle will not sustain our mental and emotional well-being over such an extended period.
• Your first life was a quest for success and money; your second life is a quest for meaning and significance. If you approach it right, you can recreate the excitement and possibility you felt back in your twenties when you first started out. Remember how that felt?
• Don’t let retirement limit you.

Mike Drak worked in the financial services industry for 38 years. Now he leads workshops and speaks at events to help others plan for a retirement full of opportunities. You can read more of his work at Booming Encore where he features as a senior contributor on retirement. 

This article was excerpted from Longevity Lifestyle by Design (September 2022). The PDF version of the book is available to download for free, or you can order the paperback version on Amazon.

Read more about retirement planning:

• Why do I need a financial plan?
• Financial planning in your 70s
• How might inflation impact your retirement plans?