In January, we were thrilled to host our first entirely retirement-focused Reboot Your Life retreat in beautiful Santa Fe. We Reboot Partners came ready to use what we’ve learned over the last few years about what people want and how they plan for retirement, plus we wanted to use and test the content of our almost-completed new book on the subject.

Some people loved the idea of retiring fully from their career and relaxing, perhaps later taking up volunteering or other interests, while others wanted to leave their fulltime career for some new work.

With 78 million Baby Boomers and our independent streak, it is natural that we’ll have different visions, interpretations, lifestyles, and favored words.

Questions arose about whether “retirement” is even  the right term for this life change.  Someone said it’s a restorative phase of life. A return to finding parts of ourselves. A renewal. An evolution. Yes, a revolution.  We think we found the right words for us: Revolutionary Retirement, which is a new time and a new way that a generation is creating, each person in his or her own way.

We want to share with you some of our “retirement” tips, which are great for planning that new chapter – or any new chapter:

1) Have a Dream – Visualize an idea of what you ideally want to do and how you want to live after you leave your fulltime career. 

2) Plan – Start several years ahead if you can, and plan when you will start your new chapter and what changes you will be making to reinvent and live based on your dreams. This is more than financial.  

3) Know The Facts – Speak to your human resources department – the experts will help you understand what is available to you

3) Communicate – Involve your spouse or partner and other loved ones about your plans – include them

4) Focus On Your Health – As part of your dream and plan begin to build in exercise – stay fit and do everything possible to prevent chronic illness

5) Be Prepared – Recognize that some people may have a period of mourning or grieving after leaving a fulltime job/career – it can be an adjustment to leave behind that social network and being in demand. Put plans in place to be with others, to socialize and build a new community of support

6) Look Forward to the best third of your life!

We learned so much and are excited for the new book (June 2014) and the next retreats – catch us in Brooklyn April 25-27, Sag Harbor August 15-17, or Cape Cod October 10-12.  And tell all your friends to sign up early!