It’s time to let go of preconceptions about retirement. To consider the opportunities that come with seeing retirement in an entirely new light. Allow yourself to imagine how your retirement years can be a time when your mind, body, and spirit thrive, and not just survive.
There are big, big changes affecting how we’re viewing retirement today. Dramatic increases in life expectancy have altered our expectations of how long we’ll live in retirement. When the concept of retirement was invented, the average worker lived less than one to two years in retirement. Today, we can live thirty to thirty-five years in retirement.
A recent study indicated that if you delay your retirement by one year, you increase your longevity by eleven percent. Many now see the need for a new, modern perspective of what retirement really means. And we call this perspective the EPIC retirement.
The “E” in Epic is Engage at any age. None of us comes into the world with “use by” dates stamped on our back. All sixty-five year olds are not equal. Sixty-five today is radically different than sixty-five was, twenty-five years ago. Forty-one percent of baby boomers still in the workplace expect to work beyond age sixty-nine, or never retire! Our lives are energized when we feel relevant and connected. This does not end at sixty-five.
The “P” in Epic is Purpose. What we all need is enough purpose to wake up in the morning, and enough money to go to sleep at night. When people lack purpose, they lose initiative, become bored, increase destructive habits, and become susceptible to failing health. It’s important to retire to something, and not just from something.
The “I” in Epic is about Integration. Today, we understand the need to keep a balance between vacation and vocation. Research has revealed that there is a diminishing law of returns on leisure when we stop all meaningful pursuits in our lives. Vacation loses its luster when it’s all we have to do.
The “C” in Epic stands for Challenge. Carlos Santana said, “The only thing that has ever made me feel old is when I allow myself to be predictable. Routine is death.” The common element amongst successful retirees today is that they continue to challenge themselves, physically and mentally. This keeps them healthy and energized.
The final challenge is to realize that we can live a life where we’re a driver and not a passenger in our retirement years. Today’s retirees have to consider that retirement is no longer an ending point on the map of life, but more of a launching point. Contact us today, and let’s start planning the journey ahead.
