Retirement Is A Pivot Point. Use It Wisely.

By Karen and Erica

Once upon a time—which is to say in the 1950s—men retired in their mid-60s, moved to a sunny place where they could play golf for a few years, and that was that.

Fine for them, especially as they expected to live to about 68, but makes little sense today. In the twenty-first century we can expect to live into our nineties, especially we women. We are healthier, mentally and physically, than ever. We want to do all kinds of things—things we never had time to do before. We have no interest in thirty years of a placid existence in a tired community where everyone has one foot out the door.

Because of our longevity, retirement is not the finish line. Retirement from a long career is simply another point of reference. Where are we now? No longer climbing the career ladder, and free from child raising, we have time, and an enviable foundation of experience. We may start something new, but we will never be newbies again. We can skip over steps we learned years ago. We may change the specifics of how we spend out time, but we won’t start at the beginning. Those of us who had long term careers and who are lucky enough now to be financially secure are ready to soar.

You may not feel like this on the day you retire. On that day, you will probably feel as if the rug has been pulled out from under you, leaving you upended and helpless in a world you don’t recognize. You don’t even recognize yourself. You don’t know what to say when people ask what you do. What do you do???

We went through that. Then we rebelled. We had accomplished far too much to be rejected now. We were in the first large group of women to work at careers for decades. We had fought as women to get into the wider world, and we were not going to leave it now just because we were older women. Enough of people trying to isolate us, to put us back in the outsider box.

What to do? We began to understand that the first step to having the world recognize we are still in the game is to recognize it ourselves. And the second step is to change the image of retired career women.

We started to make concrete moves--like coming up with the idea for Lustre--to change the way things were, and to put our cohort on the map. We began to feel better about ourselves. We thought about what we had loved about work, and what was not so compelling. Then we tried to figure out how to replace what we really missed—like a place to go to work, and colleagues, and most importantly purpose—in a different form but building on what we had achieved in our careers.

Once you are post-career for a while, you too will realize that retirement is not the last stop of your journey. It is a big waypoint, for sure, but only a waypoint. You too will figure out something purposeful and fun to do.

Until then, relax. Not forever, but take as long as you want to figure out what is next. And then forge ahead.