What is the gap in retirement readiness?
Ageism is in the Spotlight: What it means for Retirement Planning
Why Coaches are Uniquely Positioned to Support the Retirement Transition
Coaches are uniquely positioned to support one of the most significant life transitions people face. Clients are needing individualized support navigating life changes in retirement.
Retirement and the Awareness of Time Horizons
Retirement changes the way we think about time, and research shows that shift can be profoundly positive. Explore how this change relates to wellbeing, and what coaches and financial planners can do to support clients through it.
Retirement: A Time for Change?
Retirement brings visions of relaxation, new pursuits, and meaningful change. Yet many retirees find that lasting change doesn't happen overnight. The psychological shift to a new way of life requires more than motivation, it requires flexible strategies that work with how we actually create new habits.
Why Retirement Change Is Different
For decades, work provided fixed schedules, external accountability, social routines, and a core part of identity. Retirement removes these structures while introducing shifts in energy, health, and daily rhythm. When retirement plans don't immediately come to fruition, it's rarely due to lack of motivation. We're simply creatures of habit, making everyday choices aligned with our longstanding sense of self.
Research in behavioral psychology shows that sustainable change happens through small, flexible adjustments that respect changing circumstances, especially during major life transitions.
ICF Acknowledges a Rise in Specialty Coaching
The coaching profession is growing, adapting to rapid technological change, and embracing more niche or specialty coaching. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) recently updated their core competencies to reflect these changes. For Certified Retirement Life Coaches and other coaching specialities, these updates are particularly relevant as they reinforce an approach that remains client-led and non-directive, while still allowing the thoughtful use of knowledge, frameworks, and resources that can genuinely support clients in what often feels like uncharted territory.
Navigating Retirement Together: 5 Essential Conversations for Couples
Holidays in Retirement: A New Experience
Whether the holidays bring up feelings of joy or the holiday blues, retirement may bring about changes to the holidays, and also present an opportunity to create new traditions and experiences.
In this post, we talk about ways you might experience change with the holidays after retirement, along with tips for making the most out of this time.
Sleep Improvements in Retirement
One of the most commonly anticipated benefits of retirement is no longer having to set an alarm. Most people look forward to waking up when they want, and generally doing what they want, when they want. We also know that sleep plays a critical role in our physical and cognitive health, such as functioning of the immune system, cardiovascular health, mood, and memory.
So how do changes in sleeping patterns actually play out in retirement? Do retirees see improvements in sleep that may benefit their health?
Planning for Retirement as a Couple
Retirement is often framed as an individual decision. But for couples, there is another layer of complexity, and preparing well together can make all the difference in how things turn out. Unfortunately, couples often fail to communicate their plans for retirement because they assume they are already on the same page.
Four Tips for Creating Your Retirement Life Plan™ Roadmap
How do you prepare for the non-financial side of retirement, and create a Retirement Life Plan roadmap that will carry you through to a fulfilling new chapter? Below are a few tips to get you started in more fully developing your plans for retirement.
Retirement and Your Legacy
Considering the legacy you want to leave may help to direct you toward lifestyle decisions you would like to make for retirement. At the same time, the transition to retirement may provide a unique opportunity to pause, reflect, and contemplate your legacy—what you wish to leave behind and what legacy truly means to you.
Positive Psychology in Retirement Planning: Using the PERMA Model for Wellbeing
The PERMA model of wellbeing can be particularly useful in planning for retirement, to ensure that we are considering these very important elements of life that support and enhance our wellbeing. So what does PERMA stand for, and how might you integrate this into your retirement planning? We take a look at each of these elements below and highlight some questions you might consider on your retirement journey.
Why Work with a Certified Retirement Life Coach?
Many people will be familiar with financial planning before retirement. Working with an independent financial advisor or wealth manager can help you ensure you are saving and investing effectively to provide for retirement. And for many, that’s job done. But we know from research that there is much more than finances to a successful and fulfilling retirement. And that’s where a Certified Retirement Life Coach comes in.
Research Highlight: Expectations for Gradual Retirement
A recent report by Fidelity highlights some trends around how Australians are thinking about and planning for retirement—both financially and non-financially. In their survey of over 1,500 Australians (either already retired or nearing retirement) reveals that most people are looking to make a more gradual transition to retirement, mostly for non-financial reasons. Nearly 9 in 10 respondents found the idea of transitioning into retirement over time appealing.
Retirement Celebrations and Farewells
With so many years spent working, the last days of work and the first days of retirement will sometimes come with a sudden realization of the significance of this change. Celebrations and farewells can be filled with mixed emotions, from eager anticipation to sadness, or questioning the decision to retire.
Research Highlight: Does retirement increase risk of depression, or protect from it?
Retirement is a major life transition, which usually involves both opportunities and challenges for mental and physical health. Researchers have attempted to understand the impact retirement has on both physical health and mental health, with mixed findings. Partly, it is often difficult to untangle whether retirement led to poor health, or poor health led to retirement. So there has not been real consensus on the impact of retirement on health and wellbeing.
Why Retirement Life Plan™?
Research Highlight: Social Involvement and Physical Health
Retirement can be an opportunity to improve health, with more time for (better) sleep, eating healthier, and exercise. In fact, maintaining health is a top priority for retirees, next to finances. But studies are starting to suggest that we need to look beyond diet and exercise for living a long and healthy life in retirement.
Coaching Clients Through Retirement: What Every Retirement Coach Needs to Know
What does a retirement coach actually address with clients? From identity shifts to social adjustment, here are the key dimensions of the retirement transition every coach working in this niche needs to understand.