Q. In a few years, you will reach the traditional retirement age of 65. You aren’t sure if you want to keep working past that age. What factors should you weigh?
A. Consider yourself fortunate if you can choose whether or not to retire. Many older workers have had to postpone retirement because of the volatile stock market and uncertain economy.
First, make sure you would be in a financial position to retire. “You must understand how much money you have access to today and how deeply you are willing to dip into it if you stop earning entirely,” says Steve Langerud, director of professional opportunities and an alumni coach at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.
A trusted financial planner may be able to help you assess whether your 401(k) and/or pension, Social Security income, savings and home equity are enough to support the type of retirement you envision.
Layered atop your financial needs are health concerns, which, of course, can arise suddenly, Mr. Langerud says. Look at your health history and make a plan that includes the possibility of illness, he says.
Q. What else should you consider when deciding whether to retire?
A. Life expectancies keep rising , so realize that if you retire at 65, you are likely to have many more productive years ahead of you than retirees in previous generations did. This will affect your financial and your psychological health.
“People retiring lose their job and title, which are often tied up with their identity,” says David D. Corbett, founder of New Directions, a Boston firm that helps senior-level executives with career transitions. “It can also be isolating for many, not having work colleagues or a corporate infrastructure.”
Traditional retirement may lead to a lack of intellectual engagement, which is crucial for good health, says Gary J. Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
If you think of the brain as a computer, physical and mental activity are “essentially upgrading its hardware and programming,” Dr. Kennedy says. If we don’t stay engaged, cognitive processes slow down and depression often sets in, he says.
Q. You would like to remain employed at your company but want to make some changes, like cutting back on hours, working in a different position or both. Is management likely to be receptive?
A. Companies are accustomed to helping older workers plan for retirement but not for transitions, says Marc Freedman, author of “The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife” and chief executive of Civic Ventures, a group that focuses on life beyond age 50.
Yet your company may be receptive to changing your role while you’re still employed, as many businesses worry about losing experienced employees and their accumulated knowledge.
As you discuss new roles with management, keep in mind that you are a resource to the company, not a drain, Mr. Kennedy says, and that you “still have valuable contributions to make.”
Q. Say you decide to leave your current employer, but want to keep using your skills in some way. Where and how can you do that?
A. Conduct a self-assessment. Look at your career, what you’ve accomplished and what you feel is left to be done. “The older our clients get, the further back in their history they look for clues as to what they will do later in life,” says Mr. Corbett, author of “Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose and Passion After 50.”
“Write a résumé that ends the day you got your first job,” he says. “Look at the courses you took that you liked but couldn’t pursue professionally, outside activities and hobbies.”
Ask family and friends to suggest ways to reach beyond your career and reconnect with the things you enjoy. “Assemble a personal board of peer advisers, where each of you gives advice to the others about moving forward,” Mr. Corbett says. “Share with them what you would love to do and ask for feedback about how to do it. You will get some great ideas this way.”
You should also note your transferrable skills and where or how you could use them, says Stephen Moore, manager of human resource services at Insperity, a business performance solutions provider in Kingwood, Tex.
“I recently worked with a senior-level individual who was successful in his career, comfortable financially and could have stopped working,” Mr. Moore says. “He loved woodworking, so he took a job at Home Depot. He stayed employed and connected to a community, and was able to talk about and do something he really loved.”
Mr. Freedman recommends that you prepare for this later-life transition by saving money while in your 50s for things like additional education or unpaid apprenticeships and internships. “Reinvention sounds very romantic, but it’s also hard,” he says. “So it helps to prepare as much as you can.”
