“The greatest potential for growth and self realization exists in the second half of life.”

Jane Fonda, the renowned actress, political activist and fitness pioneer, has written a fantastic book sharing her vision for successful living and maturing. Its called Prime Time.

Fonda, who is now 74, has incredible, well-researched insights into living a fulfilling retirement, and her thinking echoes the philosophy that I preach to my clients. I highly recommend reading Prime Time to anyone already in, or nearing retirement.

A key message that I want to share with you from Prime Time can be explained with reference to the diagrams you see above – the arch and the staircase.

The arch represents the old way of looking at our lives – growth, peak and decline. The decline represents the retirement stage of our lives - not a welcome sight for anyone nearing or at retirement. The arch also dictates that each phase of our lives has a set goal or activity; in the first stage we learn, in stage 2 we produce and in the last stage we enjoy a whole lot of leisure time - if of course we aren’t too sick and frail from the all that stressful production to enjoy it. 

Fonda, like many other forward thinking boomers, believes that the arch is antiquated and that there is a different way of looking at things. Fortunately things have changed from the days when our parents were retiring. People on average only used to live into their early 60’s, but many are now living well into their 80’s. What this means is that your retirement represents almost a third of your life. Contrary to the arch philosophy, we aren’t declining in retirement, but rather starting a whole new phase of our lives. This requires a shift in thinking – we need to view our lives as a constant journey of growth and development – a staircase if you will– that we are always ascending and striving for more.

The staircase philosophy also means that we can no longer compartmentalise our lives into the learning, production, leisure model. If you had to spend an entire third of your life doing solely leisure activities I can almost guarantee you that you will be bored out of your mind. I frequently discuss balance with my clients because with 30 years ahead of you, you are going to need to include a variety of activities in your life to keep yourself occupied and fulfilled. What Fonda (and I) are suggesting is that you combine all three – why can’t you learn, produce and have fun at the same time? Do they have to be mutually exclusive? You should never stop learning in my opinion, and if you want to carry on working why shouldn’t you be able to? Of course leisure is important too, and so is time with your family and friends. Therefore if you continue to work you ideally need to structure it so that you can remain flexible.

People that are retiring now (in true boomer style) are revolutionising retirement. As with so many things they do the boomer generation is doing retirement in a whole new way.

By embracing the staircase approach to your life you will also be setting a positive example for future generations. I urge you all to look ahead at the next 30 years of your life, and to really plan and pursue a life in retirement that is both balanced and fulfilli

Kim Potgieter is head of Life Planning at Chartered Wealth Solutions.