How We Think About Retirement
Life-After-Work is rarely a single decision. It is often a series of changes that unfold over time. Daily routines change. Relationships evolve. Priorities shift.
Health, finances, living arrangements, and responsibilities may all be affected,
sometimes at the same time.
Without a way to step back and see the bigger picture,
it can be difficult to know where to focus.
Many important aspects of retirement are also managed through systems and institutions, including retirement funds, medical schemes, healthcare providers, insurers, and government structures. While retirees remain responsible for their own lives, they often have to make decisions within systems that were not necessarily designed around their
individual needs and priorities.
BetterWell helps people understand these changes, ask better questions,
and think more broadly about retirement and life beyond work
Retirement life stages
At the same time, retirement is often spoken about as though it were a single stage of life.
In practice, it is not.
People experience retirement differently. Some move gradually into retirement, while others experience sudden change. Health, finances, family responsibilities, mobility, and personal circumstances all influence the experience.
The Retirement Life Stages provide a broad way of thinking about
how priorities often change over time.
These stages are guides rather than fixed categories. A person of 68 may still be navigating the transition into retirement,
while another may have been retired for a decade. Some people remain highly active well into later life, while others face significant changes much earlier.
The important point is not age itself but recognising that retirement evolves over time. What matters at one stage may become less important later, while new opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges emerge.
The Seven + 1 Domains and Retirement Life Stages work together. One helps us think about the different parts of life; the other helps us understand how those parts often change over time.