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Transition and Change

Retiring Earlier Better than Later

Hi

Well, of course it sounds better to retire earlier rather than later, but not just for the obvious reasons.  All things being equal, if you had the money you might retire early. However, most people continue to work for several more years because they need to accumulate more.

It seems though, that people who completely retire and start a brand-new lifestyle at a younger age, say in their fifties, have a better chance of enjoying retirement that those who retire later.

How many changes can you handle at once?

 Volume of Changes  

How many changes are going to occur in how many areas of your life as you retire?  Stress experts suggest that too many changes cause Adaptive Stress symptoms.  The cure for this is to keep established routines in other areas of your life so you have some sense of stabilit

The Third Age

Retirement has often been called The Third Age.   In this system life span is divided into three parts: until age thirty, thirty to sixty, and sixty to the close of life.

 The third age is generally when people have enough money and financial resources so that they do not need to focus all their time and energy on working.  Their children are grown, and while they enjoy their grandchildren, they are not responsible for their day-to-day needs.

Life Phases

Lots of people have written about life phases.  These are the typical evolutionary stages of maturity that every human being goes through.  They are loosely connected with age, although there is a wide variation of ages.  For example, most of us know about the individuation of children from parents on their route to independent adulthood. 

Most people go through this phase in their late teens and early twenties, although we have all heard or know about some who were independent at sixteen, or some who seem to be not independent by age thirty.