Maybe You Don't Want Retirement

Series 3: Rethinking Retirement

Part 1: Maybe You Don't Want Retirement

A New Series

There are some questions that seem to stay with you throughout an entire career. They are not always the most technical questions, nor are they the ones with the most complicated answers, but they appear often enough that, over time, you find yourself listening less to the question itself and more to what sits quietly behind it.

One of those questions is, "When do you think I'll be able to retire?"

People usually ask it with a smile, almost as though they are talking about a destination they have been planning to reach for decades. Retirement has long been presented as the reward for years of hard work. Build your career, pay off the mortgage, contribute to your superannuation and eventually you'll reach the point where work becomes optional and life can finally begin.

It's an idea that has shaped the way many of us think about the future, yet the longer I've worked with clients, the more I've found myself wondering whether retirement is really what most people are searching for. More often than not, I don't think they're trying to escape work itself. I think they're trying to escape the version of work that has gradually taken over their lives, and those are two very different conversations.

That's where I'd like to begin this new series.

Rather than looking at retirement simply as a financial milestone, I'd like to explore what it actually means to the people approaching it. Because after spending many years helping clients prepare for this stage of life, I've become convinced that the financial side of retirement is only part of the story. The personal side is often far more interesting.

When Retirement Isn't Really The Goal

Whenever someone tells me they can't wait to retire, I've learnt not to assume they're dreaming about a life without work. If anything, I become curious about what has brought them to that point because people rarely spend forty years looking forward to doing absolutely nothing. Most still enjoy solving problems, sharing their experience, mentoring younger people or contributing to something worthwhile. What they have often grown tired of is the relentless pace that modern working life can bring.

By the time we start talking properly, retirement is no longer the main topic of conversation. Instead, people describe the parts of life they've been missing. They talk about wanting breakfast with their partner without checking emails every few minutes, walking the dog before the day begins, spending more time with grandchildren, travelling outside school holidays or simply having enough space in the week to enjoy life without constantly watching the clock.

Listening to those conversations has changed the way I think about retirement. It has reminded me that people are often searching for balance rather than an ending. They don't necessarily want to stop contributing. They simply want work to become one part of life again instead of feeling like the part around which everything else has to fit.

That distinction might sound subtle, but I think it changes the entire conversation because once we understand what people are really trying to achieve, the financial planning becomes much more purposeful.

A Financial Plan Should Support A Life

One of the biggest misconceptions about financial planning is that it begins with numbers. People often expect the conversation to revolve around investment returns, superannuation balances or how much money they'll need to retire comfortably. Those things are important, and no responsible adviser would suggest otherwise, but I've never believed they should be the starting point.

The first question has always seemed much simpler to me.

What sort of life are you hoping to build?

Without that answer, the numbers don't have much context. A retirement income target means very little if we don't understand how someone wants to spend their time. A healthy superannuation balance is certainly reassuring, but it doesn't automatically create purpose, friendships or a sense of fulfilment once work becomes less central to everyday life.

Over the years I've met people with considerable wealth who struggled to enjoy retirement because they had never really thought about what would replace the structure that work quietly provided. I've also met people whose financial resources were far more modest but who moved into retirement with remarkable confidence because they had already built a life that felt rich in other ways. They had strong relationships, interests outside work and meaningful ways of contributing to their community, so retirement became a natural progression rather than an abrupt change in identity.

Experiences like these have reinforced something I've come to believe quite strongly. Financial planning shouldn't be about helping people retire from life as they know it. It should be about giving them the confidence to build a life that continues to feel rewarding long after full-time work has finished.

Perhaps Retirement Can Be Redesigned

One of the most encouraging changes I've noticed over the past decade is that retirement no longer follows a single path. Previous generations often worked full-time until a particular date before stepping away completely. Today, many people are creating something much more flexible, and I think that's opened the door to far more possibilities.

Some choose to reduce their working week gradually. Others move into consulting, mentoring, board roles or project work that allows them to stay connected without carrying the same level of responsibility they once did. They continue contributing because they enjoy the challenge and the relationships, not because they feel they have no alternative.

Interestingly, research has begun to support what many advisers have observed for years. Gradually transitioning into retirement can help people maintain purpose, routine and social connection while easing the financial demands that often come with stopping work altogether. From my own experience, the clients who seem happiest are rarely those who rushed towards retirement as quickly as possible. More often, they're the ones who thoughtfully reshaped work so it complemented the rest of their lives instead of competing with it.

That approach won't suit everyone, of course. Health, family responsibilities and the nature of someone's profession will always influence the choices available. Even so, I think it's reassuring to know that retirement no longer has to be viewed as a single event. For many people, it can become a gradual transition towards a life that feels more balanced and more intentional.

A Different Question

As I look back over the conversations I've had with clients throughout my career, I've become less interested in the age someone hopes to retire and much more interested in the life they're moving towards. The happiest people I've met haven't necessarily been those who stopped working the earliest or accumulated the largest investment portfolios. More often than not, they've been the people who gradually created a life that already contained the things they valued most, whether that was family, health, friendships, learning or the satisfaction that comes from continuing to contribute in ways that mattered to them.

Perhaps that's why I've started thinking differently whenever someone asks me when they'll be able to retire. The question itself isn't wrong, but I don't think it's the only one worth asking.

A better question might be, "How can I build a life that I don't feel the need to escape from?"

Once that becomes the focus, the financial decisions begin to make much more sense because they are supporting a vision of life rather than chasing an arbitrary retirement date. Superannuation, investments and retirement income remain incredibly important, but they become the tools that help create freedom instead of becoming the destination in their own right.

That's what I'd like this series to explore over the coming weeks. Not simply how to prepare financially for retirement, but how to think differently about the years leading up to it, so that when the time finally comes, retirement feels less like the end of one life and more like the natural beginning of another.