Are you really ready to step off the ladder?
'The six surprising habits only the happiest retirees get right' in this weekend's newspapers. And Michelle Bridges talks on Prime Time about meno-fitness for the new year.
In this edition
Feature: A community member’s reflection: “Am I ready to step off the ladder?”
From Bec’s Desk: Happy New Year and all the good times ahead
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Six surprising habits only the happiest retirees get right
Prime Time: Your new year meno-fitness plan with Michelle Bridges
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A community member’s reflection: “Am I ready to step off the ladder?”
One of the things I love most about the Epic Retirement community is how honest people are willing to be about the real stuff. Not just the numbers or the strategies, but the feelings that sit underneath their decsion to retire.
This week, a community member shared something that stopped and made me want to share it. They’re approaching 58 and trying to make sense of what retirement actually means - not just financially, but emotionally. Today I want to share part of their reflection, because I suspect it will resonate with many of you.
They wrote:
From the moment we are born, life is about moving forward. Every day is about the next step. School years, exams, further study - there’s always something ahead, something to work towards.
That feeling only grows stronger once you start working and building a career. You give your time, your energy, often yourself, to climbing the ladder because that’s what you’re conditioned to do. Even when there are setbacks, the goal is still progress. Still forward.
Then one day, something shifts.
You wake up and the engine doesn’t feel the same. It’s not broken - just quieter. Slower. Maybe it’s starting to run out of fuel. And suddenly everything you’ve spent a lifetime working towards feels uncertain, even questioned.
What struck me most was how clearly they captured something I hear again and again: retirement isn’t scary because people haven’t planned for it. It’s scary because it asks you to stop doing the thing you’ve spent decades being rewarded for. And that’s something that becomes almost hard-wired into us.
They went on:
Deciding to retire - choosing to call it a day - is probably the biggest conscious decision a person makes. It’s frightening in ways that are hard to explain.
Can I really afford it?
What will I do with all that time?
And perhaps the hardest question of all, “Am I ready to no longer feel needed, relied upon, or wanted?”
That last question hit me hard. Because money questions are solvable - you can do the sums and negotiate your standard of living using factual information. Identity questions are messier and harder to work through - and they require introspection.
Their reflection ends not with a neat and tidy answer, but with a pause:
I think I’ll probably carry on until 60. Two more years to save, to top up my super, and to prepare myself mentally and emotionally. Two more years to get my head into the right place, so that one day I can walk into work, take a breath, and say, “I’m off,” knowing it’s truly the right time for me.
I wanted to share this because it captures something important about this phase of life. Retirement isn’t a switch you flick or a finish line you run over, and suddenly you’re in paradise.
It’s a phase of transition you arrive at and decide to pursue (or frankly someone else decides it’s time for you if you aren’t proactive). And sometimes the most sensible, self-aware decision isn’t rushing forward into an early retirement or clinging on for a late one at all. It’s simply giving yourself permission to sit with the question for a while and see how they feel - and what decisions feel right for you.
What other people are doing or thinking about for their own retirement can be completely irrelevant. This is your next best phase of life, and I want it to be something you enjoy - so it has to be about what you want.
If this reflection resonated with you, you’re certainly not alone. Many people in their late 50s and early 60s aren’t asking “Can I retire?” — they’re asking “Am I ready to stop climbing the ladder?” and '“What else could I do that would be more suited or more enjoyable'“.
And those questions deserve time, honesty, and a bit of self-compassion in my opinion.
If you feel like sharing, I’d love to know:
This community is very good at holding those conversations close - share your thgoughts on the comments page.
Welcome back, and Happy New Year.
I’m back at work on Monday, but this time working from the UK as we formally launch the Epic Retirement Institute over here too, off the back of the UK edition of How to Have an Epic Retirement becoming an Amazon bestseller in week one. It’s pretty exciting to see what started as a small idea to help people better understand retirement and make more informed pre-retirement and retirement decisions now rolling out in the UK, where around five times more people retire each year than in Australia and New Zealand. (Don’t worry - I’ll always be living in Oz doing this at home first!)
I’ve just had three really good weeks off, and we closed the Epic Retirement Club for 12 days as well. I’ve loved the digital detox, the content-making detox, and spending a rapturous amount of time with my family.
We’ve been up in the hills of France on a proper adventure. Each year I try to take the family somewhere we haven’t been before, so we’re all discovering it together. It’s especially fun now the kids are almost adults and we’re basically travelling with our favourite drinking and dining buddies. And this year we had three generations, with my Dad joining us. I’m conscious that we’re very fortunate to be able to travel as three generations!
Looking ahead, we’ve got heaps in store for the year. But the first cab off the rank is the next intake of the How to Have an Epic Retirement six-week Flagship Course. This is the Autumn 2026 program and it kicks off on 19 February. You can register via the link here.
And if you’re a HESTA member, registrations are also open for their six-week program. It’s very similar, but customised specifically for HESTA members, and it also starts on 19 February. More info here (for HESTA members only).
In the week just gone I celebrated turning 50! Yep! That was a great reason for a fancy dinner out with my kids and my nearly 80-year old parents who have made the trek to France to celebrate with me. See my 50th birthday pics on Facebook and Instagram here:
Facebook: facebook.com/becwilsonepic
Insta: instagram.com/epicretirement
Plenty more to come, but as I’m still on holidays as I write this, I’ll keep it tight. Know someone who’se thinking about retiring? Tell them about the book, the podcast and the newsletter. Let’s make everyone’s retirement more epic!
And thank you for all your support!
Cheers - Bec Xx
Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker
Six surprising habits only the happiest retirees get right
Ask anyone in their 50s or 60s how they picture their retirement, and you’ll usually get a vague image of “more freedom”, definitely “more travel”, and occasionally something about finally getting through the pile of books on the bedside table.
But when you dig deeper into how people actually experience this phase of life, a sharper set of truths emerges. Some people flourish in retirement, but others really struggle. And the gap between the two isn’t wealth, luck or timing. It’s something else entirely.
Let’s be honest: retirement is a double-layered challenge. Yes, it’s financially complex, but it’s also emotionally demanding. And today’s retirees are, in many ways, the test case generation.
We’re living longer, we’re retiring with more money, and our expectations of what life should look like in our 60s, 70s and beyond are far higher. That brings opportunity, but it also brings uncertainty.
This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday 11th January 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.
The Epic Retirement Flagship Course for Feb 2026 is filling up quickly! Don’t miss 25% off earlybird sale.
Not long to go now until the next 6 week edition of the How to Have an Epic Retirement flagship course. It kicks off on the 19th February and HUNDREDS of people have already booked I’m thrilled to say.
It’s a practical, Australia-first program designed for people in their 50s and 60s who want to understand how to navigate retirement (the easy way). And we all do the program together (we call it a synchronous program).
It covers the stuff that actually matters: how the systems of retirement really work, how to get money into super, then how to turn your super into income, how to think about spending, tax and the age pension, and how to plan for health, purpose and the long game of ageing in place.
There’s no jargon. No scare tactics. No sales pitch for products. Just pure, honest, factual retirement education designed to help you make better choices in the years ahead, and feel less fear as you live it well.
Your new year meno-fitness plan with Michelle Bridges
As we start the new year, time is a time when so many of us want to reset our health, get stronger, feel clearer, lose weight, and maybe sleep a bit better. I want all of it. Do you? But here’s the thing that almost no one says out loud: if you’re a woman in your 40s, 50s, or early 60s, every part of your health is being shaped by perimenopause or menopause - even if you haven’t recognised the signs or don’t want to talk about it.
That’s why I wanted to start the year with someone who can speak honestly, practically and compassionately about what’s really going on in women’s bodies at this age, and how we can bring her wisdom into our health plans for 2026.
In this episode of Prime Time, I’m joined by someone I’ve long admired: Michelle Bridges - bestselling author, coach, and one of Australia’s most well-known and trusted health communicators. Michelle has coached thousands of women and has just released a new book, ‘The Perimenopause Method: The only menopause guide you’ll ever need’. It’s a brilliant, practical guide to understanding your changing body and working with it, not against it.
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:
The question around no longer feeling needed, relied upon, or wanted, is an interesting one.
I find it very sad when people make work their whole identity, yet I also got sucked into it in my 40s.
Highly recommend changing the 'work is my life' dynamic in the last few years of working life. Makes you realise that work is just one facet of a well rounded life and becomes much easier to walk away and embrace change without feeling like its all over.
I have had many different “careers” during my life, including a ski instructor and running my own business. I currently work in the public service in a job that I have loved. But I’m so ready to move on. I have never made work my identity and I am 100% sure I will when I quit this job I will be making a community and making friends and routines and a life similar to what I had when I was working, I will just have a much greater say over how I spend my time and with whom. I feel really lucky to be able to say that each job I have moved on from, it is because I squeezed alllllll the juice from it and now I am ready for the taste of something else.