Retirement is a time of transition

Susan Bell Research specialises in research with people approaching, avoiding, living in, and experimenting with retirement in Australia.
That’s right. For many people, retirement is an experiment. People approaching it don’t know what lies ahead. They don’t know how they are going to make it work.

The questions we always hear:

• What will I do?
• What will forced time together do to my relationship with my partner?
• How will I know how much to spend and what to spend it on?

Retirement is a rite of passage

Retirement in Australia can be like a half-open doorway leading to a land without roads or pathways.

• Some people approach this doorway with glee, looking forward to a new life.
• Some people approach it with relief, glad to be rid of the commute and the stress
• Some avoid it, until they can’t. One day, their health tells them to stop working.
• Some have retirement forced upon them through retrenchments and caring for loved ones.

For many people, this is a bumpy ride

The anthropologist Victor Turner* had two great insights about rites of passage like these:

Liminality and in-betweenness

Before people settle into retired life, many go through a series of transitions when they question their identity and purpose. This bumpy ride is typical of liminal spaces and liminal times – a sense of trying to figure out what the rules are and where they fit in this world.

And when people can’t see the rules to follow, they create their own. That is what we often see: people creating their own version of retirement.

Communitas

Communitas is Turner’s word for a sense of shared belonging. It’s more than just ‘community’. Communitas comes from interacting and connecting with people, human to human.

What this means for marketers and policy advisors

Our big message to all marketers is that this time of life is not what you think it is. This is not the stagnant ‘nothing to see here’ lifestage that you picture in your mind.

What matters is how people’s needs change as they transition from one life stage to another.

We are a research agency based in Sydney. We work with super funds, health insurers and others who are interested in engaging more effectively with this market.

To find out more

• Check out our post on Liminality.

• Download our digital report: The 10 Life-Changing Questions Asked By People In Their 60s

• Ask us for a copy of our report Spending and Saving Money in Retirement. The New Lives of Older Australians

• Contact Sue for a confidential and completely free consultation for marketers and policy advisors interested in finding out more about this demographic.