Written by: Caroline Tapken, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
If you are anything like most expats I know, retirement means having saved enough money in lieu of the company pension most people back home are so accustomed to, and it generally means ‘going home’ when the work overseas is finished. Few expats, however, really stop to think about what ‘going home’ actually means, after what seems like a lifetime working in exotic (or not so exotic) locations around the world. If you are an expat, who has not thought beyond the financial cost of retirement, then keep reading!
Retirement Planning – So Much More than the Financials
If you Google ‘Retirement’ most of the links are for financial planners. We are conditioned to think about money in relation to retirement, but there is little guidance on how to retire happily, what it actually means, and how you can plan for a life in retirement. There is even less support for the total life-changing experience that retiring from expat life will throw at you.
The Meaning of Retirement
When did you last sit quietly, without distractions, and really think about what retirement means to you?
For most people, retirement means the end of the daily commute; the end of fitting life around the working day; the ability to do what they want with their time, and take holidays when they feel like it. A move might be considered, to downsize, or live closer to family. No immediate decisions are necessary, but time to think about what they want. A transition from going to work every day, to not going to work every day.
You are not ‘most people’. You, as an expat, have lived in another country for most of your working life, or several other countries. You have led a different kind of life. That of a working nomad. Constantly uprooting home and family to pursue your career, experiencing different cultures and enjoying a life others can only dream of.
What happens when that stops?
I can tell you the first thing that happens: you have to move!
You probably don’t have much time to think about it, after all, in many countries, when the work stops, the visa to live there expires! Maybe you have made plans to stay a little longer, but in your heart, you know that as you get older, and don’t have the job to give you structure and focus, this is not the country you want to be in.
So where do you go? “home”?
What does home mean to you?
Going home sounds wonderful when we are working overseas, but what does ‘home’ really mean to you?
As expats, we have all experienced that excited anticipation before our planned annual trip home, looked forward to seeing family and friends, only to find that after the initial 24 hours of everyone else being excited about our arrival too, they all slip back into their daily lives and routines, and we are left feeling like fish out of water.
The anticipation of regaling everyone with stories of our travels and exploits falls flat as polite smiles and bored looks appear after a very short time indeed. In truth, no-one is interested in where you have been and what you have done. They cannot relate to your life, and very quickly revert to their normal conversation and existence.
You might like the idea of slipping into relaxed village life when you retire, close to family and friends, but what will the reality look like? As expats, we move in expat circles throughout our working life overseas. Regardless of where we live, we have something in common with most people we meet – we are all away from home and adjusting to life in a country that is not our own.
Moving back to our home country can feel like starting afresh in a foreign land. The difference is, you will be alone in that feeling. No one around you will be experiencing what you are experiencing, and that in itself can be a very lonely feeling. Are you prepared for that?
Adjustment Disorder is very real and described as ‘a short-term, stress-related psychological disorder that can follow a significant life event’. It can manifest itself as anxiety, difficulty sleeping, sadness, tension and inability to focus. Retirement in itself is a ‘significant life event’; retirement as an expat who also has to uproot and change locations upon retirement is certainly a ‘significant life event’!
Planning for Life-in-Retirement
I’d like to offer you a few thought-provoking questions to start with. Begin by writing these questions down. Take the time, with a clean sheet of paper and a pen, to handwrite, not print or type, and focus on the question whilst you are writing. Do this without other distractions – I promise it won’t take long!
Why hand-write these questions? Writing things down helps you focus on the question; it allows your brain to process and pay attention to what you are writing, making recall and comprehension easier. It’s all to do with cognitive ability, developing and nurturing neuro pathways and essentially allowing the brain to do what it is meant to do – process information. We simply do not process or recall in the same way when we type, or read something we did not write down ourselves.
So, pen and paper in hand, write down these questions:
1. If I didn’t have to work again, what would I be doing with my time?
2. What would get me up in the morning, with a smile on my face?
3. If I could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?
4. Which environment makes me happiest? Where am I most at peace? Where am I most energised?
(eg beach/countryside; small village/big city; isolation/busy)
5. What is most important to me?
(Time with family/ability to travel; spontaneity & freedom/planning & scheduling etc)
Before you write any answers down, spend some time really thinking about each question and what YOU want. Not what is expected of you; not what your partner or family think; instead, think about your own wants and needs.
Write down whatever comes into your head.
If you find your mind wandering to your current TO DO list, put the paper aside and return to it later. Even the act of writing down the questions, and beginning to think about how you feel will give your brain a boost to start processing ideas and thoughts. Whenever something pops into your head, write it down on your paper.
Keep coming back to these questions again and again, until you feel happy with the answers you have written down, and the way your future is taking shape in your mind.
Now, finally, you are on the path to actually planning the life you would like in retirement, when your globetrotting life as an expat comes to a natural end.
If you would like to explore this topic further, feel free to contact me and let’s get that Retirement Life Planning underway.
Next month we will explore the challenges of moving back home that no one tells you about!
Caroline Tapken, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Caroline works with Expats and Repats to help them plan their future, so they can enjoy the retirement they deserve.
She is a seasoned expat herself, with 35+ years of living and working in the Caribbean, the USA, Asia and the Middle East, and a marketing & communications professional with a strong hospitality and travel background.
Caroline is Mum to two third-culture-kids (TCKs) and a rescue Basenji-Saluki mix. She recently returned to live in the UK and is Listener-in-Chief at Joy & Purpose Life Coach.
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