7 Questions To Ask Before You “Retire”
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Uncategorized on May 6, 2012
There are so many questions to ask before you shift to that next life stage of work and life. In a recent interview with www.brighterlife.ca I pointed out a few. This resulted in an article called: “7 Questions To Ask Before You Retire”
Just a note of clarification on one comment. The article said I encourage people to start asking themselves these questions when they turn 40. I realize 40 is a looong way from retirement for many. What I meant by that comment – is to start thinking in broad strokes about what might be of interest for your retirement. If you have an idea of what you want to do (work and life), you have more time to plan for it.
The specific questions that I offered in the article may not be the right ones to ask at age 40 — but asking some other related questions may be very helpful. I know this from my own experience.
For example – when I turned 40, I asked myself what I wanted to do for the next 20-25 years of work. This prompted a new career path for me that I transitioned into (vs. hard stop/hard start). Unbeknownst to me at the time, I actually began what will likely be my ‘retirement career’ when I do retire. Rather than waiting until I’m in my 60’s to try out a new career, I started at 40. I’m now 8 years into this career. I’ve created a foundation for a new career — alongside keeping a foothold in my initial career as I transitioned.
Some of you may need to do the same. Not everyone has the luxury to do the hard stop/hard start — particularly if the new career requires some re-tooling (education, learning new skills, building a biz).
Transition, test drives, learning along the way. Don’t wait until it’s ‘retirement day’ to start that process.
Anyways, just some food for thought! 
To your success and wellbeing in the UNretiredLife!
How To Develop Your Retirement Career While Still Working
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Boomers, In the News on April 18, 2012
Boomers – are you thinking you might like to explore a new career frontier after you ‘retire’ from your current job/career?
Many boomers are planning new careers. But for some, it’s not going to be a hard-stop, hard-start proposition. Many will do that ‘transition’ thing. Put a toe in the water of a new career, while still working at the ‘day job’. Perhaps trying something out part-time, or testing the waters.
Either way, it will take some juggling to manage the ‘new career’ with the day job.
As one of the Globe and Mail writers for the Ask a Career Coach feature, I wrote about this in my latest article. A reader asks, how can she manage two careers at once? She describes one as a ‘passion’ career. The other, her day job and she’s not willing to give up either.
I wrote this from my own experience and ‘heart’. When I started my career in professional coaching (and related areas), I had a firm foot in my first career (communications). My career path has been all about balance and transition. Still is to a large extent.
Would love to hear from you? Do you have experience transitioning to a new career and holding two careers at once? What has worked? What challenges did you face? What other tips might you have?
To Your UNretiredlife!
Eileen
12 Questions to Complete the Year and Start Anew
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Uncategorized on December 10, 2011
It’s an annual tradition of mine – to celebrate, reflect and capture the meaningful bits of the past year and to reflect and focus on the year ahead. I encourage you to make some time for a year-end/new year reflection. Questions are useful to guide this reflection and each year, I offer 12 questions to consider.
Here are this year’s 12 Questions (some are brand new and some you may have seen from past year’s list):
THE YEAR PAST:
1) What went well? Consider all dimensions of your life experience and think small and big…it all counts!
2) In what ways did you grow and evolve in the ‘evolution of you’? This is an important question in all our life stages — and especially for anyone in the so-called ‘retirement’ years. For those who may have ‘retired’ past careers, it doesn’t mean you retire the need to grow and evolve. In fact, this area is most salient for folks in this stage of life. Gotta y’a thinking??
3) What were some key lessons for you personally in 2011? For those of you exploring options for your post-career lifestage – what have you learned? This stage of life sometimes calls for trial and error…what lessons did those trials and errors offer?
4) What do you need to clean-out or let go of right now to be ready to start fresh in 2012? Old outdated retirement myths?? Limiting beliefs about aging that get in the way of you creating a lifestage filled with meaning, growth and adventure? Toss ‘em out before they bring y’a down!
5) What personal accomplishments are you most proud of from the past year? For many people, their accomplishments were associated with their careers. If you’ve retired that career – it’s all the more important for your retirement life planning to include stuff that you can feel good about. Accomplishments come in many forms…think beyond career…think all dimensions of life!
6) If there was a theme for 2011 for you personally, what would it be? i.e. “This was the year of ____.”
THE YEAR AHEAD:
7) What do you want for yourself in the year ahead and in what ways can you take responsibility for making that happen?
8 ) What strengths (name at least 3) will you deliberately use more of in the year ahead to realize your goals?
9) In what ways will you take care of yourself to maintain your “Mojo” – resilience, energy, inspiration and sense of wellbeing?
10) What are your learning goals this year? If you had a ‘learning agenda’ what might be on that list? If you thought you’d learned all there is to know and retirement is the time to rest and stop learning then you’re in trouble….this is the attitude that leads to a very unfufulfilling (and for some, downright ’depressing’ ) retirement. Gotta have that grey matter pumping…and the mojo working…learning is a big part of that. Get cracking!
11) In what ways will you contribute something to the ‘greater good’ of _____ (choose a community or communities of choice)?
12) If the year ahead is to have a personal theme for you, what would that be? i.e. “This will be the year of ____”
To a season of joy and celebration – may you complete the year in good health and spirits. And my you look forward to a shiny new year with fresh eyes, energy and empowerment to create the year you want!
Eileen
Retiring Retirement (National Post) and more…
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Boomers, Financial Planning, In the News, Retirement 2.0 on November 23, 2011
Retiring Retirement…that’s the title of an article in which I was recently interviewed for. I like the sound of that phrase (retiring retirement). It sounds a bit like this blog’s name and philosophy: UNretiredLife. Well, as many of you may know – retiring the old notion of retirement is a topic I’ve addressed for quite some time. This year, there’s been a huge ramp up of this story as boomers have turned 65. Media, banks and many other players in the financial services industry have hop on to this new narrative of what ‘retirement’ is going to mean to boomers. A paradigm shift to say the least!
In the News! In the past couple weeks, I’ve been quoted quite extensively in articles about work and life in so-called retirement. See below. And, btw, if you feel you are years away from retirement and don’t need to think about this – well, think again. Planning for life (and possibly work/career) in the next stage of life takes time. I know. I started in my ’40′s — and as many of you know, I have been developing an extensive second career that could serve me well into my so-called retirement years (Big Cheese Coaching) — alongside my other career in communications. Takes work. Planning. Thinking. And more.
Anyways, don’t take it just from me – hear what others have to say:
Retiring Retirement - and how boomers can stay engaged with work and life (Investment Executive, November 2011)
Retirement Can Get Old Very Fast - if you don’t do the ‘life planning’ part of it (National Post, November 5, 2011)
Post-work Planning – how boomers can plan for life after full time work (Investment Executive, November 2011)
To a TGIM work+life in all stages of work and life!
Eileen
Try the Retro Retirement…In the News
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Financial Planning, In the News on August 7, 2011
Anyone who pays attention to all the marketing buzz regarding retirement savings will feel they need to save millions to live a good, happy and meaningful retired life. Not so, says a recent article in the National Post, written by Garry Marr. “Try the Retro Retirement” - shows how one couple is living a full and happy retirement lifestyle without spending lots.
I was interviewed for this article and quoted towards the end. In my chat with the reporter, I shared a few thoughts. Here’s a quick recap of our chat (since we spoke about more than what he was able to include in the article quote):
Living a meaningful life during so-called retirement is not only about the financial planning and money side of things. It’s about life planning. Every individual will have their own ‘version’ of what makes for meaningful life. So the key to planning is to first articulate your goals, what’s important to you; how you will spend your time; your must-haves vs. ‘nice to haves’, etc…..only then will you know how much $ you need to fund that lifestyle.
There are many dimensions to consider when planning for that next stage of life: your material needs of course but also your emotional, intellectual and physical needs. Not everyone wants to travel the world. For some people, having more time with family and friends and personal pursuits will fulfill their dream life. Volunteering, learning a new hobby or advancing an existing one.
The options are many. So before you make assumptions about how much $ you need, take the time to explore what ‘meaningful life’ will be all about for you. That combined with the essentials (costs for home, food, etc.), will be a better starting point for your planning.
To the UNretiredLife!
Do You Have the Green Light to Retire?
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Financial Planning, In the News on May 6, 2011
Further to my post yesterday, here’s another article of a similar theme: boomers are not rushing out to do a full stop retirement. Many are heading back to work. Another Certified Financial Planner (Ted Rechtshaffen) wrote an article for the Globe and Mail’s “Globe Investor” and invited me to comment on this.
The article begins with this: I think we all know of people who retired but then changed their mind. What made them go back to work? What lessons can it teach to those who are now thinking about retirement?
To success and fulfillment in your own version of UNretiredLife!
Eileen
A New Definition of Retirement: “Freedom to Choose”
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Financial Planning on May 4, 2011
I had an interesting conversation with my Certified Financial Planner professional the other day. I recently made a change in advisors and in the process of establishing the engagement, we have been reviewing all aspects of my financial plan. That of course, includes retirement.
Like any good planner, he asked the question: At what age are you thinking of retiring? Well, let me tell you how I resisted answering that question! I wanted to send him straight to this blog so he could understand that retirement ain’t what it used to be (I exclaim with indignation! ). Like many other Canadians, I will likely work for quite some time — not just for financial reasons but because I get a lot of satisfaction from my work. According to many recent polls, I am not alone.
But my CFP did understand. He said: “Well, Eileen, I have a different definition of retirement. Rather than it being a fixed date when you stop working, I see it more as a time (projected) when you will have the freedom to choose. It may or may not include work but you have that freedom to decide.”
Ohhhhh…I like the sound of that. The ‘freedom to choose’ ….isn’t that delicious?
It can be daunting to pin-point a date in time when you will retire (especially if you are still young…literally…or ‘at heart’). So reframing it to ‘freedom to choose’ (whether work is part of your retirement or not) is much more palatable and easier to do when it feels you are years away. The bottom line is you do need to prepare financially and you need a target time-frame. But this definition offers some much appreciated wiggle room on what retirement will mean to you.
Some people will argue that you always have a choice. But let’s be real. Different lifestages bring different commitments. If you are early in the mortgage, raising kids, sending them to school (like many Canadians), then you gotta work hard to bring in the dough. But at some point, those obligations shift and there does come a time for many when there can be a loosening up of the wealth accumulation agenda (unless you are committed to spend, spend spend). Do you have to work as hard? Do you want to? Maybe, maybe not.
Getting clear on your goal age to have freedom to choose is both a financial planning question and a life planning question. Success in the UNretiredLife involves planning in all three dimensions: work + life + financial.
If you don’t yet have a financial planner yet, I encourage you to check out Financial Planning Standards Council and select their ‘choose a planner’ function to find a CFP professional in your area. And do check out the tips in what to consider when hiring (disclaimer: I have a professional involvement with FPSC and I believe wholeheartedly in their mission).
And if you would like some help with the life planning dimension — to explore your possibilities, then give me a call!
To your version of a meaningful UNretiredLife!
Eileen
The Age-Old Question….(job interviews)
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Uncategorized on April 15, 2011
There’s a great article today in the Globe and Mail about job interviews for older workers (or should we say ‘more seasoned’). Some pros and cons about disclosing your age and challenges (and opportunities) when job seeking later in life.
You can read the article here.
What do you think? What’s your experience thus far? What works and what doesn’t? Would love to hear!
To success in your UNretiredLife
Eileen
Retiring Right: Chock full of tips
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Retirement 2.0 on January 12, 2011
Thought I’d share a publication that I had the privilege of contributing to. Retiring Right, is a publication produced by RBB Media. The December issue was included in the Chronicle Herald. In Retiring Right - you’ll see a wide array of articles, tips and resources related to retirement planning. I was invited to contribute an article on the life planning side of retirement. It made it to the front page! Also – plenty of tips on the financial planning side of things. Both are integral to a successful retirement… or UNretiredLife…which ever way you look at it, you gotta plan for your current and next state of life.
To success and meaning in your version of UNretiredLife!
Eileen
Canadian Boomers are gearing up not shifting down (research)
Posted by Eileen Chadnick in Boomers, Research on November 24, 2010
I love it when research affirms what I’ve been saying for quite some time:) According to a recent survey by Investors Group, Canadian boomers are gearing up and not shifting down in retirement. They won’t be knitting by the fire and taking long Sunday drives (what’s wrong with that?!) – that last comment is according to Debbie Ammeter, spokesperson on the survey.
Well I agree. My earliest posts here talk about how boomers won’t be heading off into the pasture. They’ll be creating new adventures. Those who have a plan that is. Not just financial but a life plan. Do you?
You can read the press release here.
The message is bang on: if you are a boomer, you likely have years and years ahead of you in the so-called-retired life. You are not ready to roll over…..but perhaps spring into a new chapter.
Whachhya gonna do? Who ya gonna be? Lots to chew on – it’s an important life stage. Don’t wing it!
To the UNretiredLife!
Eileen
