About

About GoRetirement

Founded in Sydney in 2016, our aim is simple. To help all of us build and live a great retirement. To work with all stakeholders, pre retirees, retirees, government, employers and others to make this time of our life the best time of our life. To help pre retirees, who may dread retirement, do what is required to move from dread to excitement. For existing retirees who may find it a bit dull, or lonely or worse to make the adjustments required to get it back on track.

This all sounds easy, but it is not.

There are many retirement pitfalls. Over 60% of us are disappointed by our retirement. A bad retirement is bad news. It affects our mental health our physical well being and life expectancy, and can, at its worst, damage our relationship with those we love. Divorce rates are high at this stage of our life.

Fear of reticent is very common and quite understandable.

We may have experienced our own parents struggling with it. How to fill those days? How to stay connected and feel valued? We may have witnessed the fast decline of our mothers and (often more so) our fathers as they stopped work and stepped into a less than fulfilling retirement.

Today we live a long time in retirement – typically more than 20 years. That’s a lot of time to fill.

GoRetirement was founded by Lanning Bennett. When Lanning retired he saw first hand how many people were struggling with it, how many spent their days drifting, and how, over time, that drifting affected them emotionally and physically.

Lanning developed a retirement course, Men in Retirement- Making it Great, to address the often unique issues of men in retirement. Men, we discovered have (arguably) a more difficult time in retirement than woman. Men are (generally) less socially skilled than woman, they are more reluctant to reach out in retirement and build connections, to take the initiative, to organise things and invite people along. They tend to sit and wait. And that doesn’t work in retirement.

This led to other programs, one on one coaching and the writing of a book, The Naked Retiree capturing what we have learnt and what can be done to best prepare for, build and live a great retirement.

Others heard about our work. We now engage with government, private sector, HR, businesses associations and of course pre retirees and retirees. We offer a range of courses, tools, data, books. We help create platforms to connect retirees with attractive and lifestyle friendly work opportunities. In fact we do whatever we can to make retirement the best it can be. Their are many obstacles. The employment market is very difficult for older people. Divorce rates are high in the 60+ age group. So is mental and physical decline.

Our population is aging. We are in retirement longer. Government’s around the world are increasingly concerned about the social isolation and potential physical and emotional health issues associated with retirement. We work with government to help address these issues.

We work with leading organisations keen to support their older employees and their transition to retirement.

We continue to build.

If you think of something we could add, please let us know.

We are all in this together.