
In their book, Refire! Don’t Retire, Ken Blanchard (best known for his books about management—including The One Minute Manager) and Morton Shaevitz define ‘refiring’ as: ‘Adopting an attitude of embracing the years ahead with enthusiasm rather than apathy.’

‘People who work very hard need to start building up other interests to make their retirement work.’ That’s the advice from Professor Gordian Fulde.

We have a dilemma. I write this sitting in our caravan in a caravan park in Merimbula, NSW. The dilemma isn’t Merimbula. We’ve been frequent holiday makers here. It’s a delightful spot on the far south coast of New South Wales. It’s also a major retirement town—a lot of retirees live here. Our dilemma is: do we keep the caravan?

Some foods you see in the supermarket may not be what they seem. Marketing, these days, can be misleading with some food claims seeming too good to be true!

Working out what you want to do in retirement isn’t easy. There are so many options. Here are seven questions that may help you plan yours.

Being successful at our life is important. I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago at a funeral of a friend— Steve. He was only 40 years old.

8000 days? If you retired at 65 years, 8000 days takes you to the age of 87. Some of us will make it. Some won’t. But we’ll all have a say in what the number of days we have will look like.

Living a life with meaning is more important than pursuing happiness. That’s the conclusion of Emily Esfahani Smith, author of The Power of Meaning. She says, ‘So many of the people that I know and admire aren’t focused on pursuing their own personal happiness. They’re focused on leading meaningful lives and what they can do for others.’

Retirement is a life change that can seem complex and daunting. However, the following five questions can help keep it focused and, hopefully, simple.