Bec, this is awesome!! I don't ever intend to retire fully.. I'll always be doing something.. but this set of steps is exactly what I need to "transition" from business owner/employer to having time to do the things I love.. even if they are still work-like things!! Changing the focus from work related steps to life related steps is a game changer! And "celebrating each of the steps" is something I'd never thought of.. but is also a game changer..
And yep, I acknowledge those with situations like Mike.. that can not be good.. I am blessed to own my own business and have (semi) control over that!
Your outline of the ways that many people can see the road to near retirement and then planning their retirement, transitioning at their own speed to an epic retirement, sounds great.
Unfortunately, many of us started to have the view that we were nearly ready and we would look to how we would slowly decrease our work activity and increase what else we wanted to do but fate intervened and of of course there are also more complications in reality.
In my case, I was mid sixties and planning to work a few more years and then find a way to work a few years part time. But my employer decided to close my region. It came with little warning and other jobs were hard to find and the few that may have been possible came with little attraction. While there were those jobs that were completely different, tying up your day with a monotonous job with low pay, did not seem good use of my valuable time. I suspect that retrenchment has happened to many people and is far from how I thought it take place.
But all the same you can look at how you use this freedom and in my case, having more time meant more dog walking, bush walking, cooking, getting the little task(s) done you put off, a few hobbies like gardening/ landscaping and of course travel.
The other thing that I have not really seen you mention is that if you are part of a couple then retirement is not only about you. Your partner may be younger or not ready to stop yet. Continual dialogue about how they choose to transition and how you shape joint time, as well your own time (some individual activity is even more important now) is very important.
Its all good but like many things the realities of how things eventually turn out, are quite different to the plan but at least if you have given some thought to the outcomes you wanted, you can modify these with reference to how things actually took place. I am fortunate I came up with a plan at 51 of what I needed (and how to get there) financially at 67 and had also thought of some of the ways I would like to spend my time. A lot of this shaped how last 2 years have been and how my partner and I plan to enjoy the next 5-10 years.
Bec, this is awesome!! I don't ever intend to retire fully.. I'll always be doing something.. but this set of steps is exactly what I need to "transition" from business owner/employer to having time to do the things I love.. even if they are still work-like things!! Changing the focus from work related steps to life related steps is a game changer! And "celebrating each of the steps" is something I'd never thought of.. but is also a game changer..
And yep, I acknowledge those with situations like Mike.. that can not be good.. I am blessed to own my own business and have (semi) control over that!
Bec,
Your outline of the ways that many people can see the road to near retirement and then planning their retirement, transitioning at their own speed to an epic retirement, sounds great.
Unfortunately, many of us started to have the view that we were nearly ready and we would look to how we would slowly decrease our work activity and increase what else we wanted to do but fate intervened and of of course there are also more complications in reality.
In my case, I was mid sixties and planning to work a few more years and then find a way to work a few years part time. But my employer decided to close my region. It came with little warning and other jobs were hard to find and the few that may have been possible came with little attraction. While there were those jobs that were completely different, tying up your day with a monotonous job with low pay, did not seem good use of my valuable time. I suspect that retrenchment has happened to many people and is far from how I thought it take place.
But all the same you can look at how you use this freedom and in my case, having more time meant more dog walking, bush walking, cooking, getting the little task(s) done you put off, a few hobbies like gardening/ landscaping and of course travel.
The other thing that I have not really seen you mention is that if you are part of a couple then retirement is not only about you. Your partner may be younger or not ready to stop yet. Continual dialogue about how they choose to transition and how you shape joint time, as well your own time (some individual activity is even more important now) is very important.
Its all good but like many things the realities of how things eventually turn out, are quite different to the plan but at least if you have given some thought to the outcomes you wanted, you can modify these with reference to how things actually took place. I am fortunate I came up with a plan at 51 of what I needed (and how to get there) financially at 67 and had also thought of some of the ways I would like to spend my time. A lot of this shaped how last 2 years have been and how my partner and I plan to enjoy the next 5-10 years.