“Building a great retirement takes work. It doesn’t just happen. The phone doesn’t just ring. It has to be created and nurtured everyday.”
About Us
Our founder retired in 2015. He thought he was ready.
There were tons of things he wanted to do. He had always been a creative ‘can-do’ sort of guy and felt that retirement offered unlimited opportunities to build the life he wanted, not the compromises that go with a work life or a life raising children, but a life that he could build from the ground up.
After all, every day was a blank page. All he had to do was fill it.
If only it was so easy!
After the first few months doubts started to creep in, within a year the shine was definitely fading. Each day was getting more difficult. The many things he thought he wanted to do – endless travel, write that book etc. – simply weren’t enough. He couldn’t spend all his life on a plane and nor did he now want to. He started to miss his work life, the structure, the stimulation, the socialisation. He was good at it and he missed its purpose and validation.
His partner was still working, and even if she hadn’t been she had her own plans for retirement and much of that involved doing her own thing. She was not going to retire just to buddy up with him.
The message was clear. Get your act together find stuff to do, keep busy and get happy.
He found that many men were in the same situation. Feeling increasingly bored and unfulfilled, sometimes lonely, feeling that life was drifting, that the spark had gone out of it.
They weren’t happy … and neither were their partners who would often come home to a grumpy old man.
In 2016 he started his first program. Men in Retirement – Making it Great to help men address these issues, to find purpose, to build a retired life full of great things to do. That has been taught widely ever since.
But retirement is not just a tough issue for men, woman of course wrestle with it also – although the issues differ to some degree across the two sexes. What helped men could also help woman.
On-line and face to face courses were developed for men, woman, couples, pre retirees, new retirees, mature retirees, for specific issues etc.
A social media presence was established to help people connect over these issues, to share issues and solutions. In 2019 government approached us to roll out our course more broadly. As populations have aged and time in retirement has lengthened, keeping older people socially connected, active and healthy both emotionally and physically has become a big social and policy issue.
We offer our services to organisations who see it as one of their core responsibilities to assist upcoming retirees, who often dread retirement, with this most difficult transition.
These many initiatives now fit under the one umbrella – GoRetirement.
We hope you get a lot from this site. Much of the material is free. Check out our blog for lots of interesting ideas and join in our community discussions.
Check out our many courses, workshops, lecture and events.
If there is one thing we have learnt about retirement it is this. A happy retirement takes lots of ongoing effort. It doesn’t just happen.
We are here to help.
And from all of us at GoRetirement … have a fantastic retirement!
“the big revelation on the day to me was the anxiety and dissatisfaction many of the retired attendees feel about life after retirement.”
‘Men In Retirement’ Course Attendee
goretirement.org 