Retirement is one of life’s biggest milestones and its biggest transitions. More than just a financial or even logistical event you mark down on your calendar, retirement can be an emotional, if not a total, identity shift. Many are thrilled to retire and finally stop working, but once they’ve passed that phase of retirement, they realise that the lifestyle change, the disruption to their routine, and even the shift in their daily priorities can leave them feeling upended.
Knowing each of the stages of retirement can help you plan the transition better, so you can make the lifestyle change and get to loving your golden years that much faster.
What are the Five Emotional Stages of Retirement?
The five emotional stages of retirement are pre-retirement, the honeymoon phase, disenchantment, reorientation, and stability or contentment. Some people move through these phases of retirement faster than others; some skip stages, and others will need to return to earlier stages a few times during their adjustment period, for example, as they work out what the right place is for them to retire.
You can pave the way to seamlessly transition to a happy retirement by looking up key concepts in advance, for example, how retirement village living works, and still need to go back and forth a bit as you try to find the specific community that feels like home.
|
# |
Stage |
What it can feel like |
What to do |
|
1 |
Pre-Retirement |
Anticipation, planning, sometimes anxiety about what comes next. |
Work with a financial advisor to improve your financial strategy, start researching housing and location, and consider how you’ll want to spend your days with new purpose. |
|
2 |
Honeymoon Phase |
Freedom, excitement, and relief. During this phase, the world feels wide open. |
Enjoy the freedom, but begin deliberately shaping how your time will be spent so that you can build a supportive routine that continues beyond the honeymoon phase. |
|
3 |
Disenchantment |
Boredom, lack of structure, loneliness or loss of identity and purpose |
Recognise that these feelings are normal and mean it’s time to rebuild your routine and build meaningful connections. |
|
4 |
Reorientation |
A gradual rediscovery of what matters. |
Explore new interests, relationships and activities while you reassess priorities and build habits that reflect what matters now. |
|
5 |
Stability and Contentment |
Retirement starts to feel settled and genuinely fulfilling |
Continue evolving. Contentment is not a fixed destination but an ongoing process of adapting to what works for you |
Stage 1 – Pre-Retirement: Preparing for Life After Work
The pre-retirement stage occurs during the last one to five years of your working life. Many practical elements are essential when it comes to planning for retirement, including:
- Review income sources and start creating a retirement budget.
- Consider your housing situation. Does your current home suit retirement life in terms of size, accessibility, location, and even just convenience?
- Start thinking about where you actually want to live and what you want nearby, as downsizing or relocating during retirement can be one of the best ways to smoothly transition through each stage of retirement.
- Create a health strategy to improve your physical and mental well-being and build lasting healthy habits ahead of the transition into retirement.
Stage 2 – The Honeymoon Phase: Enjoying Your New Freedom
The honeymoon phase in retirement is what most people experience immediately after retirement. Of all the phases in retirement, this one is both the least stressful and the most enjoyable, and can feel like freedom or even relief.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with basking in the honeymoon phase. If anything, you should look into planning your retirement lifestyle to extend the elation and the novelty of your retirement for as long as possible. Not only can this help you get the most out of your honeymoon phase, but building good lifestyle habits now can help you enjoy a resilient, enjoyable routine later on.
Stage 3 – Disenchantment: When Retirement Feels Different Than Expected
Once the initial novelty of retirement begins to fade, some people experience a more difficult emotional period known as disenchantment. You may feel:
- Bored without the direction, challenge, or routine of your work.
- Lonely, particularly if your friends and partner are still working regular hours.
- A loss of identity.
- A lack of purpose.
While these feelings can be distressing, they are not permanent. They are also not a guarantee. If you build a thriving new lifestyle during the honeymoon phase, you may skip this step and immediately start refining your routine to build a new purpose.
Stage 4 – Reorientation: Finding New Purpose and Routine
The reorientation phase in retirement is the pivot point. The goal of this stage isn’t about replacing work with a packed schedule. It’s about finding meaning in what you do and discovering what matters in this stage of your life, and continuing to do so as your needs, priorities, and even opportunities change. That’s why this phase can include:
- Pursuing hobbies or interests that you didn’t have time for before
- Investing more deeply in your personal relationships or the local community
- Learning new skills either by yourself or formally in an educational setting.
- Volunteering or otherwise contributing to causes that feel meaningful and bring you joy.
- Getting involved in local and community life around you.
- Setting personal goals, whether that’s about travel, fitness, or creative projects.
- Establishing a new daily or weekly routine that provides both structure and forward momentum.
Retirement villages in particular make finding purpose in retirement during this phase of retirement simple. There are plenty of resident-led activities, social opportunities, and chances to volunteer and get involved with the community within a retirement village, making it a great place to get started.
Stage 5 – Stability and Contentment: Settling into Retirement
The final stages of retirement are all about settling into your retirement and loving it. This final stage is where stability in retirement is finally achieved. When all those pieces finally start to fit together.
- This contentment stage in retirement can look and feel like:
- A comfortable daily and weekly rhythm that you’ve chosen and works with your health and personal goals.
- Meaningful relationships and strong connections with friends, family, and community.
- A clear sense of your personal identity beyond work.
- Physical and mental well-being, which you maintain as an active priority
Just as with all the other stages of retirement, this stability stage is also in flux. Continue to be open to change and maintain the curiosity that helped you get this far in retirement, so you can continue to enjoy high life satisfaction and enjoy a fulfilled retirement even as your health or support needs change.
How to Prepare for the Different Phases of Retirement
There are so many ways you can prepare for retirement.
- Plan your finances early so you understand your retirement budget and can plan accordingly.
- Think carefully about your housing options and location. Does where you currently live suit the retirement you want? Consider accessibility, community, proximity to family and amenities now that the commute is gone.
- Maintain and invest in relationships outside of work so that when the work ends, the social connections don’t disappear with it.
- Identify hobbies and interests in advance while you’re still working to help avoid or minimise the disenchantment phase and improve your retirement lifestyle.
- Protect your health and well-being by ensuring you stay active, sleep well, eat a healthy diet, and can maintain those healthy habits every single day.
- Establish new routines purposefully. Rather than assume that structure is automatic, take the lead and establish a routine that helps you reach your retirement goals.
- Be open to changing plans. What works at 65 may not be right for you by the time 75 rolls around. The most content retirees are simply those who are ready to adapt to their needs throughout the years and at each stage of retirement.
What is the Hardest Stage of Retirement?
There is no universally hardest stage of retirement. Retirement is a personal experience, and what may challenge one person may not challenge another. On the whole, however, disenchantment is the phase of the emotional stages of retirement that most have difficulty with immediately after retiring. The loss of structures such as a daily routine can leave people feeling listless, lonely, and purposeless. What helps during this stage is rebuilding your routine with new hobbies and meaningful pursuits, and building or strengthening your social connections.
Creating a Retirement That Works for You
Retirement is deeply personal. There’s no single correct way to retire, nor one way to build a routine that works for you. Some may prefer building their retirement routine from scratch. Others may prefer to join an existing community and to explore retirement living with Retirement Villages. These retirement communities allow for fully independent living with the added bonus of a full social calendar and doorstep amenities.
There are retirement properties to rent based on your retirement lifestyle preference, options to buy, and even the ability to buy the flat or cottage you’re renting at select villages. With so many villages available throughout the country, you can even stay close to home or family.
An active retirement is a social one. Retirement communities make it easy to enjoy a fulfilling retirement and reach those critical final stages of retirement.
