How to Step Confidently Into Your Life After Retirement
Retiring after decades in the work world can bring up issues related to identity and lifestyle. Here's how retirees can move beyond their career identities and embrace retirement.
To understand more about the challenges professionals face as they transition to retirement, Kiplinger spoke with Teresa Amabile, a professor emerita at the Harvard Business School and coauthor of Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You.
You and your colleagues conducted more than 200 interviews, including multiple interviews over several years, with 14 professionals who were making the transition to retirement. Why did you focus on that demographic?
So much research has shown how health and wealth affect retirement decisions and experiences. We wanted to take those two factors out of the equation and uncover the psychological, social and life-restructuring issues that face people who are financially secure and reasonably healthy. Of course, those factors weren’t completely out of the equation. Nearly everybody said they hoped they and their life partner would stay healthy and fit for many years. And except for maybe one or two C-suite people, nearly everyone worried to some extent about money.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Why do some older people continue to work past retirement age, even if they can afford to retire comfortably?
Our research uncovered three basic issues. The first is identity. So many of us who are professionals have really invested ourselves in our work, often for decades. We take great pride in what we’ve been able to accomplish, and that’s a big piece of who we are. It’s difficult to think of ourselves in a new way when we see that identity ending.
Second, if you’ve been a really engaged professional, you have developed strong relationships with colleagues, customers and clients who mean a lot to you. Many people find that it’s difficult to retain those relationships after they retire.
The third thing that’s really scary for people is realizing that the life structure of work, which consumed up to 70% of their waking hours for decades, will be gone. Even if you were tired of working, you knew what you were going to be doing every day.
Does phased retirement — working part-time, for example— make it easier for some people to transition to retirement?
Phased retirement can be quite helpful, even if it’s just reducing your work by one day a week. Because it’s a gradual transition, you have time to adjust your sense of self, explore other things and realize there is something on the other side. When one of the 14 people we followed reduced his work week to four days, his daughter asked him to baby-sit her toddler on part of his day off. He agreed to help her out, a bit reluctantly, but was surprised by how it deepened his identity as a grandfather. He loved how the little boy lit up when he saw him. It gave him the sense that there was something waiting for him in retirement and, within a year after retiring, he had built a very satisfying life for himself.
What lessons would you like readers to take from the experiences of the people you interviewed?
The first thing we want people to know is that retiring isn’t just about financial planning. If you want to have a satisfying retirement, it’s not a bad idea to think about retiring as a different kind of work. Allocate some time to deepening relationships that will endure.
You may also want to reactivate an identity from earlier in your life that used to be important to you. One guy I interviewed who had risen to the highest level of his company had been an avid hot-rodder as a teenager. As he was approaching retirement, he started thinking about hot-rodding again, so in the six months before he retired, he got a hot rod — a nicer one this time — and started tinkering with it in his garage. He got reengaged with the hot rod community, which led to a great retirement activity for him and a great set of new relationships.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
Related content
-
4% and Chill? Find Out If This Distribution Rule Fits Your RetirementTake this simple quiz to discover whether the 4% Rule will work for you in retirement.
-
Oregon Tax Kicker in 2026: What's Your Refund?State Tax The Oregon kicker for 2025 state income taxes is coming. Here's how to calculate your credit and the eligibility rules.
-
Will IRS Budget Cuts Disrupt Tax Season? What You Need to KnowTaxes The 2026 tax season could be an unprecedented one for the IRS. Here’s how you can be proactive to keep up with the status of your return.
-
4% and Chill? Find Out If This Distribution Rule Fits Your Retirement
Take this simple quiz to discover whether the 4% Rule will work for you in retirement.
-
I'm an Estate Planning Attorney: These Are the Estate Plan Details You Need to Discuss (And What to Keep Private)Gen Xers and Millennials would like to know if they're going to inherit (and how much), but Baby Boomers in general don't like to talk about money. What to do?
-
I'm a Financial Adviser: This Is How You Can Minimize the Damage of Bad Market Timing at RetirementPoor investment returns early in retirement on top of withdrawals can quickly drain your savings. The ideal plan helps prevent having to sell assets at a loss.
-
The $3,000 Retirement Mistake Millions Make Each Year (And How to Avoid It)A little oversight or automation can keep money in your pocket.
-
7 Questions to Help Kick Off an Estate Planning Talk With Your ParentsIt can be hard for aging parents to discuss estate plans — and for adult kids to broach the topic. Here are seven questions to get the conversation started
-
The Top 10 Side Gigs For Retirees In 2026Money is freedom in retirement; here’s how to earn more of it with a profitable side gig
-
The 'Yes, And...' Rule for RetirementRetirement rarely follows the script. That’s why the best retirees learn to improvise.
-
What Not to Do After Inheriting Wealth: 4 Mistakes That Could Cost You EverythingGen X and Millennials are expected to receive trillions of dollars in inheritance. Unless it's managed properly, the money could slip through their fingers.
