Retimement – June 2010

RETIMEMENT™

Retimement™ spells the end of Retirement and that’s GOOD NEWS!  Retimement is the defining movement led by the boomer generation that marks the end of your parents’ retirement model.  The world has changed and the retirement model is irrelevant in today’s dynamic and fast-paced world. It is time for a new model that reflects the world in which we live, work and play.  It’s time to STOP laboring, anxiously planning for a lifestyle that does not work in the 21^st Century.  It’s time for a change – it’s time to re-time your life – why wait?

WHAT IS RETIMEMENT™?  It is living well now. It is re-timing the balance between professional and personal time.  It is a foundational shift in thinking from a traditional work/retire timeframe to integrating a work/retire plan and lifestyle that begins now. It precludes the notion of working until one is 66 (or older) to ”retire” from what?  Life? Work you may actually enjoy? Contributing to the world in meaningful ways?

Retimement means that you are not stuck in a “cubicle nation” working in order to retire at a certain age.  You don’t wait for that magic number in your 401k to step off your self-imposed treadmill. It means that you get to do “retirement” now, albeit, balanced with “work”.

WHY RETIMEMENT™?  The economic meltdown of 2008 was the perfect storm for getting people to adopt Retimement. Years before the recession, I had determined that the traditional notion of retirement was becoming irrelevant. Many friends had “failed” at retirement, finding that golf, cards, fishing, eating-out and travel were not satisfying enough as full-time occupation. People were living longer and frankly, wondering if their finances would hold out and contemplating how to re-enter the workforce in some capacity; friends were mixing up professional and personal time pursuing passions while keeping their “day” job.  People were retiming and Retimement captured the dynamic. The financial crisis kicked the Retimement movement into high gear as boomers realized that their retirement plans were shot to hell.  Their options were to put off retirement (indefinitely) or re-time!

Adapting your life plan to a Retimement approach requires that you integrate work with your ideal life or retirement goals as a lifestyle NOW. You don’t follow (and were you really going to anyway?) the traditional work/save/retire model.

Think DIETING…a short-lived diet never works.  A successful “diet” is really a balanced eating plan for how you should eat most of the time if you want to maintain the weight loss; same for Retimement.   It’s not a short term pursuit.   It’s your life and whether you are Type A and incapable of retirement; have a dominant “slacker gene” and feel that every day on the golf course suits you to a ”tee”; or if you are a little bit of both, Retimement works.  It is each person’s customized balance of integrating one’s professional and personal life. It will evolve.  As with a diet, over time, tastes and schedules may influence what you eat and so will personal finances, families, location, etc. influence your Retimement.

In fact, Retimement factors in technology, mobility, living longer and a myriad of other dynamic factors that have already influenced and changed how people balance their work and personal lives.  Retimement is already happening…it just didn’t have a “name” and now it does!

Retimement takes some thinking, organizing, planning. Retimement.com will be providing information and resources for financial planning, travel, employment, real estate, mentoring, coaching, networking, and other useful solutions and ideas for implementing your Retimement. To begin, we welcome your ideas and thoughts and for those of you who have already re-timed, we welcome your stories.  June 2010.

Please send to: info@retimement.com.

RETIMEMENT™ Providing information, resources and solutions to achieve a lifestyle that integrates ‘retirement’ into everyday living; the on-going balance between work, profession or career and personal pursuits.