Reflections on Retirement: Bridging the Macro and Micro Perspectives

 

For many people, life changes dramatically before and after retirement. As a result, our perspectives and daily feelings shift significantly. Keeping a record of our thoughts, feelings, and activities before and after retiring—a major life event—can serve as a valuable reference for those who follow us into retirement. However, after living in retirement for ten years, we may forget many of our memories of the transition. Reading through records we wrote after leaving our careers, we might be surprised by our past emotions and thoughts, and even reminisce about our younger selves from a decade ago. Advice based on ten years of retirement experience is undoubtedly useful for those approaching this stage of life, as it provides a broad, macro perspective. But records of actual retirement experiences offer a detailed, micro perspective that is easy to relate to. I believe that combining the macro perspective from years of experience with the micro perspective of immediate post-retirement records can be even more beneficial. It allows us to view our current situation more objectively and relatively, learning from the comprehensive experiences of our predecessors.

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