Should I retire?Dear Wendy, My name is Tim Zhang. I am a Learning Development Director of a major MNC company in oil and gas industry. I will be 50 years old next year, according to the policy, I should retire. My boss really like me to stay and offered me to rehire me back as a “full time consultant” after my retirement. I am interested, since I am quite comfortable with what I do and I think I can still add value. On the other hand, I am quite excited that i can play golf 5 times a week and spend more time with my grandkids.. Should I accept the offer? Or maybe it’s time, I should let young people have chance to move up and focus on my golf championship?
Dear Tim, What an exciting & scary question! You know what? I don’t know. But I can tell you some interesting stories what are happening right now right beside me.. They are:
She has always had breathing issue. So after retirement, she decided to move back to her hometown, Malaysia with her husband. Now just arranging her own garden and try to stay healthy. She thinks she is pretty happy, bored most of the time, but feel solid & peaceful.
In the beginning, he was following his wife around, from supermarket to afternoon tea. and having a marriage crisis. One day, his wife told him, “Justine, I married you because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but not for lunch!” finally his wife kicked him out of the house and forced him find another job. He always likes coaching young people. Now teaching in school. Now marriage is saved. And achieved “new balance” in life.
He was a sales GM. After he retired, he left his company and started his own business in training sales people. He started as a consultant working for the company he left then the business grew pretty well and he is growing the business. As a results, he became even more busy and more fulfilled at the same time!
She took a higher level position in another company she knows for a long time. Since it was her vender. Basically she took a bigger challenges even after “retirement’! Now she is more excited than ever since she feels like she can achieve her dream in the new platform!
There are lots of people around me thinking about the same questions, and I also have seen different results based on different perspective and desire. In the past 20 years, the way people look at retirement has been changing.. due to the advancement of health care, family structure, communication, and economic growth. Basically there are two big different definition/perspective regarding this subject. I call them the “traditional & alternative”, I list out the definition, Top priority, your role, time allocation, and common surprise for your references-
After all, the most important thing is “define your way of retirement” and make the way you like. It can mean 1000 different things to different people. The most important thing, your life is becoming happier! Well not necessarily less busy, or more golfing time though.. “ )
Enjoy your retirement, Wendy
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Wendy Wu,CEO of New Leaders Group