Preparation is key for early retirees

Make sure you have activities that fulfill you outside the job. Those kinds of activities continue after retirement and keep you fulfilled while you’re considering your post-career career options, advises Hal Lancaster

Retirement is tough, especially early retirement. Just ask Michael Jordan. There he was, the greatest basketball player ever, his amazing motor in idle, while lesser lights held the spotlight. Moreover, Jordan felt he still had some juice left in his batteries, which he seems to be proving in his comeback.

This is a matter of keen interest to me. As of the stroke of midnight, Dec. 31, I officially became a retiree, having ended my nearly 31-year tenure as a full-time Wall Street Journal employee at the tender age of 55.

In no way do I compare my status as a journalist to Jordan’s as a hoopster, but there are some parallels. Like him, I don’t really need to work, financially (although his financial cushion is a tad larger than mine). And, like him, I believe I still have considerable juice left in my battery.

Many baby boomers are now facing this dilemma, either because they made a bundle in the stock-market boom of the 1990s or they accepted incentives to cut loose early by cost-cutting employers trying to weather the economic downturn. A host of large companies have offered early-retirement inducements to employees in the past year, including DaimlerChrysler AG, Unisys, Whirlpool Corporation, Xerox and Union Pacific Corp. General Motors Corporation just announced a package to induce older white-collar employees to depart, its second such offer in three years.

As I enter this new state, I’ve read many articles on the subject. Most focus on the financial issue, as in, do you have enough moolah to last for another 30 years or so? (I’m definitely going for “or so.”) But for me, and for many other early retirees who benefited from the 1990s stock-market boom, finance isn’t the main issue.

Act Two

I think of my retirement as another career phase, and my concerns center around what it will look like. Do I want a new, full-time career, a part-time extension of the old one, or do I just want to live the old, golden-years dream of travel, golf and relaxation? Do I still have the desire to do what I’ve been doing, or is this the time to try something different? How much leisure can I stand? And how do I feel, emotionally and psychologically, about this new state of affairs?

For one thing, I’m feeling a lot of pressure. Us old folks are living longer, we’re more active and frankly, more seems to be expected of us. In his book, Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionise Retirement and Transform America (Public Affairs, 2000), author Marc Freedman predicts that in retirement, the “Woodstock Generation” (that’s definitely me) will “still be trying to change the world.” The so-called golden years, he insists, will be an “intense time of social activism, volunteerism and lifelong learning.”

Well, I don’t know about that. I think those who were social activists for most of their lives will probably continue to be in their later years. Most of us, however, are just trying to decide what will make us happiest.

“Most people have been taught how to retire financially,” says Robert Seller, president and chief executive officer of New York-based National Executive Service Corps, which recruits retired executives as consultants

to nonprofit organizations. “But they haven’t given much thought to what they’re going to do for the rest of their lives.”

Seller should know. He took early retirement from International Business Machines Corporation in 1997, at age 56. Plus, in his current position, he sees a steady stream of retirees struggling with this transition, and the inevitable loss of prestige and identity that their powerful positions with major corporations provided.

Seller, for instance, spent his last 11 years at IBM as a community-relations executive. The long-time marketing executive had responsibility for communications, public relations and for distributing grants to nonprofit organizations in the Northeast. But when he retired, and no longer had large pots of money to give away, he was surprised at how many people he had considered friends no longer sought him out. “I was very used to having the mantra of IBM; it just opened doors,” he says. “In America, your identity is where you work.”

I know that feeling. All those years with The Wall Street Journal granted me considerable prestige, both in the journalistic and general communities. People answered my phone calls a lot quicker. I never really needed to explain why I was calling someone. That’s a lot to give up, and it will be a while before I stop thinking of myself as a Wall Street Journal reporter.

So, for those of you facing this traumatic change, here are some tips for succeeding in the final phase of your career:

Make sure you have activities that fulfill you outside the job. Those kinds of activities continue after retirement and keep you fulfilled while you’re considering your post-career career options. Too many people retire and suddenly go from a full-tilt-boogie existence to sitting around watching Judge Judy all day. Boredom and depression can set in quickly.

Seller, whose father was a Presbyterian minister, has always lived a full and active life. Even when he was working full-time at IBM, he was active in non-profit organisations and his church, and served as a Cub Scout pack leader. “I’ve always had an outreach mentality,” he says.

Talk to others who have done it: Take this opportunity to consider your needs. For many, decisions made during their prime work years are motivated by family and financial needs, and not necessarily by their true desires. Now you can really consider some of those things you’ve always dreamed—or at least wondered—about. Want to start your own business? Want to embark on a totally different career? For Sellers, the decision was easy. He had always been a highly active person; his temperament wouldn’t allow him to be different in retirement. For others, it’s the pull of the social environment and connections in the workplace that’s difficult to give up.

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