Monday, September 22, 2014

Retirement: A major Life Transition

This is a journal article that provides an overview of why retirement is a transition and what are the causes of some problems that occur during this movement. As stated by the author, the transition is a finite period which has a beginning and an end and it is a state that is different from what was and what will be, which might be confusing or emotional. This transition usually involves new potentials and significant decisions. He considers retirement as a kind of social anomie by moving from working to retirement.

The author stresses the importance of considering life planning (subjective) as well as financial planning (objective) sides of retirement before it arrives, instead of focusing mainly on the financial aspects. He believes that retirement is more of an emotional than financial experience and people should plan for retirement by thinking about how they are going to spend their money to achieve their desires. One way for doing this is using Bliss List exercise in which people write their visions of how they’d like to spend their lives after retirement without considering any financial limitations. Subsequently, they will prioritize these goals to get a list of the highest goals and depending on their assets they are going achieve some of them. This list helps people to answer the question: How they want to live life?


However, some people may find it difficult to figure out what they really want?. This may lead them to stuck in the life planning or for some of them; they might become depressed when they can’t afford their goals. For those people, the author suggests consulting therapists or life coaches to help them to overcome difficulties they are facing in this stage of their lives and knowing about the experiences of other people especially who had the same circumstances and feelings.

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