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Retirement, like adolescence, is an important transitory stage in one’s lifecycle. While it can be a time of personal growth and self-renewal, paradoxically it can also be a period fostering anxiety and critical self-examination. Through the research of a wide variety of sources, it is evident that those who act deliberately regarding the retirement questions are likeliest to be most satisfied with the outcome. While my findings did confirm my original hypothesis: that there is a greater focus on financial planning, and that social planning is to a certain extent neglected where it would prove beneficiary to the prospective retiree, I also discovered that because of the dynamic nature of retirement this emphasis may shift in the future. As the phenomenon of retirement has transformed into the empowering model of today, the need of planning for a socially fulfilling retirement has intensified, with the conceptual frameworks of personal identity and self-esteem further crucial to a person’s successful transition. Cross-culturally, males, more so than females, are likely to have their sense of worth negatively affected by the cessation of work. Nevertheless, encountering individuals that presented contradictory life experiences also revealed a plethora of divisive opinions, emphasising to me the generalised nature of my hypothesis. Research is not black and white: there is always scope for an imperfect result.
The challenges of the PIP involved maintaining a consistent effort, and narrowing the wide scope of information relevant to the experience of retirement into a coherent, structured and focused piece of research. The opportunity to conduct primary research has allowed me to confront the issues personally within my own micro world, but also through the experiences and perspectives of others, which I pleasantly discovered to be an enriching and valuable process. I have consequently gained a greater respect for retirees as a group, the potential they represent as productive contributors to society, and the importance of, as a young adult, encouraging this involvement through cross-generational communication.
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