How To Retire With Great Purpose
How To Retire With Great Purpose
How To Retire With Great Purpose
How To Retire With Great Purpose
Do you know someone in or approaching retirement? Listen as Andrew Beach, director of life planning and retirement coaching at The Center - Memphis, explains how to retire with great purpose and eternal meaning.
Audio Transcript
Howard: We’re excited to get into today’s podcast with Andrew Beach. Andrew leads our efforts in life planning and retirement coaching. Today, we are covering how Andrew helps people considering or who are already in retirement. Tell us more about that, Andrew.
Misconceptions About Retirement
Andrew: There is one thing we know about retirement and one thing we don’t talk about enough.
What we know is research tells us that people are stressed in retirement and lots of people are avoiding that stress by over-celebrating their retirement. If you’re in front of a computer or phone right now, Google the word retirement. After you Google retirement, click on the “images” tab underneath to see the pictures associated with retirement. If you scroll through the first 25 pictures on your screen, about 50% of those pictures are people traveling or enjoying leisurely and luxury destinations — they’re on the beach, on a boat, or on a boat by the beach. They’re on vacation. Another 25% of the pictures are Hallmark cards and graphics with phrases like “Happy Retirement” surrounded by confetti, candles, and coins in a piggy bank. The last 25% of the pictures are of street signs or road maps with “work” pointing in one direction and “retire” in the other direction.
What we don’t talk about enough is that the research tells us that retirement is one of the top 10 most stressful events of your life. It’s more stressful than pregnancy, more stressful than children moving out of the house, and even more stressful than the death of a close friend.
Your identity goes through a major shift when you retire.
That’s the research. Retirement is more stressful than we realize and the cultural narrative around retirement is responding to that stress with self-centered living. But the transition into retirement is an amazing opportunity that also presents daunting obstacles. So the question is will you and I be ready to live with purpose, meaning, and impact in the later years of life? I want to help people recognize there is a cultural definition of retirement that does not deliver what it promises, and that living on mission within God’s will is our aim.
Helping Parents Retire
Carter: Andrew, you’re 41, not retired, and in all likelihood, not close to retiring yourself. Tell us how God brought you to this ministry.
Andrew: Thanks, Carter. The first conversation with my dad was when he told me he was considering retirement. I asked lots of questions, and it didn’t take long to realize my dad had lots of questions, concerns, confusion, and doubt about what to do next. And, I don’t blame him! Like we just said, it’s a big transition, a transition that does not always receive the credit it deserves. Confusion during a life transition is normal but there is a way to get clarity. So we had several conversations about how to think through what was next. My parents were thinking about where to live, what kind of housing they wanted, who they would live near, what their schedule would look like, and other factors. They weren’t preoccupied with the nickels and dollars in retirement, but they were worried about living with purpose and intentionality.
When people retire from their careers, there is a potential loss of their identity. My dad had been a track coach my entire life and nearly 25 years as a college track coach. Giving that up after all of that time would have been a huge challenge. So I encouraged him to find a way to keep doing the things he’s good at as he entered retirement. I said, “Hey dad, why don’t you find a local high school where you can volunteer and keep doing what you love? You could mentor the high school coach and be a father or uncle figure to the athletes and become a hometown hero in the process?” He ended up loving my idea but with a subtle twist. He ultimately found a volunteer coaching position, but it was at Auburn University — not a local high school! But he’s having the time of his life. He’s doing what he loves but without the pressure and the paycheck he once had. He’s serving rather than earning. They’re more connected to their local community than ever before. Those conversations with my father made me wonder if the non-financial aspects of retirement are a challenge for other people in his season and stage of life.
Howard: God is so good to us to show us our gifts — where we are making a difference in the lives of others. Working with your dad (your beta client) showed you what could happen, how life giving new starts can be, and gave you a heart for helping others in retirement. What happened next?
Andrew: Yes, he was the beta client. So I started interviewing people approaching, entering, and living in retirement to confirm my dad was not an anomaly. What I found is that many people have a financial portfolio that they've worked on for years (even decades) with their financial planner, but they haven't spent time mapping their retirement lifestyle portfolio with the same amount of time and focus. So the stress of retirement and the affinity to live for themselves rather than others is a valid challenge to tackle. Many people do not have alignment, confidence, or traction moving forward, and they need someone to listen, discern, and encourage them around how to thrive in the encore of life.
A New Beginning
Jesus says in John 10:10 that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy but Jesus offers us life to the full. If we value the impact we can have and the legacy we want to leave, we will value planning to maximize our life after desk. Here’s the hope of the gospel — Jesus takes sinners like us and invites us to follow Him. That’s a new beginning. Jesus gives us new beginnings once and for all through the salvation he offers us and his mercies to us are new every morning. So in the retirement phase of life we are meant to embrace rather than get stuck in the stress or self-indulgence.
Howard: So you aim to help people to retire on purpose instead of retiring on accident.
Andrew: Exactly. And, when you look at the Bible, God is commissioning and recommissioning people who are described as “old and advanced in years” and are in the later stages of life. God calls them to be engaged with his work in the world.
The people you would say are “past their prime” are the people God invites to participate. Think about the heroes of the Bible and how old some of those characters were. Moses was 80 years old when he returned to Egypt and led the Israelites through the Red Sea. Joshua was in his mid-80’s when God said to him in Joshua 13:1, “you are old and advanced in years, but there is more land still to possess” in the conquest. Daniel was in his 70’s when he was commanded to stop praying and ended up in the lion’s den. And, in Acts 20:24 Paul says “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself” as he says goodbye to the church in Ephesus.
The Bible is full of people being commissioned and recommissioned for meaningful, gospel work as they age.
Howard: So, what you’re saying is we need to think about retirement in a different way.
Andrew: Yes we do, and when we read God’s word, we discover that the Bible casts a much different vision for our next stage of life.
The Encore of Life
Carter: Andrew, you mentioned that we need to retire the word retirement and start calling it an Encore. What is your vision for an Encore?
Andrew: When people retire from paid work, the assumption may be that their best work is behind them. But every great concert or show has an Encore. And there are some assumptions behind an Encore we don’t even realize. When the curtain goes down and your favorite artist walks off stage, we applaud with the expectation that the show isn’t over yet. We expect an Encore. And, we know the Encore is the best part of the show. Whether you’re looking to switch careers for the sake of greater purpose, or you are graduating from paid work, God has plans for you to live with eternal purposes in mind, purposes that make life meaningful now and in order to leave a legacy. The Encore of life is when we recommit our time, talent, and treasure to God’s glory.
Howard: It’s a great metaphor. How would we begin thinking about this from a biblical perspective? So you’re really calling those entering retirement to consider the examples of Scripture as an outline for their retirement lifestyle.
Andrew: That’s exactly right. Because God numbers our days, He sustains us and keeps us alive until the work He desires to do is complete. Hebrews 12:2 says we run the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus writes our story, not us. It’s our responsibility to follow Him in all of life but we’re drawing special attention to the encore of life.
Discovering Your Encore
Carter: So what is your process in working with people to discern and discover the Encore of life?
Andrew: Let’s think for a moment about the process of choosing where to go to college. This decision takes time. It’s probably an 18-24 month process. By the end of your sophomore year of high school and beginning of junior year, you are scheduling when to take the ACT/SAT tests, thinking about how much tuition and scholarships will affect your decision, how far from home you can/should go, if you want to attend a big state school or a smaller private college, what kind of campus environment you are looking for. Those categories include aptitudes, finance, travel, housing, and amenities. These are all categories we also need to address in the Encore.
But the biggest factor in our college decision should be whether the school we attend has the major we want to study. Not everyone sticks with their first major, but you ought to pick a school based on the major you want and if their program will allow you to flourish and thrive when you finish school. If not, we need to find another school or decide to change our major.
Retirement is a lot like the college process. We need to think about all the things we really want to major in when we enter the encore of life. If we don’t prioritize what matters most, understand how to translate that into meaningful work, and create a schedule and process to get there, we might wander through retirement without knowing we have missed out on all that God made us to be and do.
To help people do this, I have created a curriculum that takes people through conversations, exercises, and reflections that lead them toward the mission and purpose they will have in their Encore of life. We typically meet every two weeks, for 8 sessions, usually 90 minutes each. We meet every other week so there is time between each session for homework, if you want to think of it that way, that allows you to reflect and distill what will matter most to you in the encore.
In our sessions, we spend time:
- Discovering your unique gifts
- Writing a personal mission statement
- Determining the values you will cherish and live by
- Acknowledging the losses and gains of your transition
- Drafting your Encore job title
- Evaluating who your key relationships and commitments in life and how to accelerate your impact for each area
- Cultivating creativity and generosity
- Helping you find ways to serve your neighbor and neighborhood
- Evaluating your roles and establish rhythms
- Creating a lifestyle calendar
Howard: So what are our next steps? What should we do now?
Andrew: Don’t believe the lie that retirement is overly stressful or overly self indulgent. Romans 12:2 says we should not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds to discern the Lord’s good, pleasing and perfect will. So here are three things to do next:
First, know that God has a marvelous plan for you through salvation in Jesus. That’s the new beginning everyone needs!
Second, do not fear retirement or any other life transition because God is with you in it!
Finally, if you are struggling or eager to discover God’s specific purposes for you in retirement, contact us at The Center Memphis. We want to help you live in God’s good purposes during this season of life.
Resources
John 10:10
Joshua 13:1
Acts 20:24
Audio Transcript
Howard: We’re excited to get into today’s podcast with Andrew Beach. Andrew leads our efforts in life planning and retirement coaching. Today, we are covering how Andrew helps people considering or who are already in retirement. Tell us more about that, Andrew.
Misconceptions About Retirement
Andrew: There is one thing we know about retirement and one thing we don’t talk about enough.
What we know is research tells us that people are stressed in retirement and lots of people are avoiding that stress by over-celebrating their retirement. If you’re in front of a computer or phone right now, Google the word retirement. After you Google retirement, click on the “images” tab underneath to see the pictures associated with retirement. If you scroll through the first 25 pictures on your screen, about 50% of those pictures are people traveling or enjoying leisurely and luxury destinations — they’re on the beach, on a boat, or on a boat by the beach. They’re on vacation. Another 25% of the pictures are Hallmark cards and graphics with phrases like “Happy Retirement” surrounded by confetti, candles, and coins in a piggy bank. The last 25% of the pictures are of street signs or road maps with “work” pointing in one direction and “retire” in the other direction.
What we don’t talk about enough is that the research tells us that retirement is one of the top 10 most stressful events of your life. It’s more stressful than pregnancy, more stressful than children moving out of the house, and even more stressful than the death of a close friend.
Your identity goes through a major shift when you retire.
That’s the research. Retirement is more stressful than we realize and the cultural narrative around retirement is responding to that stress with self-centered living. But the transition into retirement is an amazing opportunity that also presents daunting obstacles. So the question is will you and I be ready to live with purpose, meaning, and impact in the later years of life? I want to help people recognize there is a cultural definition of retirement that does not deliver what it promises, and that living on mission within God’s will is our aim.
Helping Parents Retire
Carter: Andrew, you’re 41, not retired, and in all likelihood, not close to retiring yourself. Tell us how God brought you to this ministry.
Andrew: Thanks, Carter. The first conversation with my dad was when he told me he was considering retirement. I asked lots of questions, and it didn’t take long to realize my dad had lots of questions, concerns, confusion, and doubt about what to do next. And, I don’t blame him! Like we just said, it’s a big transition, a transition that does not always receive the credit it deserves. Confusion during a life transition is normal but there is a way to get clarity. So we had several conversations about how to think through what was next. My parents were thinking about where to live, what kind of housing they wanted, who they would live near, what their schedule would look like, and other factors. They weren’t preoccupied with the nickels and dollars in retirement, but they were worried about living with purpose and intentionality.
When people retire from their careers, there is a potential loss of their identity. My dad had been a track coach my entire life and nearly 25 years as a college track coach. Giving that up after all of that time would have been a huge challenge. So I encouraged him to find a way to keep doing the things he’s good at as he entered retirement. I said, “Hey dad, why don’t you find a local high school where you can volunteer and keep doing what you love? You could mentor the high school coach and be a father or uncle figure to the athletes and become a hometown hero in the process?” He ended up loving my idea but with a subtle twist. He ultimately found a volunteer coaching position, but it was at Auburn University — not a local high school! But he’s having the time of his life. He’s doing what he loves but without the pressure and the paycheck he once had. He’s serving rather than earning. They’re more connected to their local community than ever before. Those conversations with my father made me wonder if the non-financial aspects of retirement are a challenge for other people in his season and stage of life.
Howard: God is so good to us to show us our gifts — where we are making a difference in the lives of others. Working with your dad (your beta client) showed you what could happen, how life giving new starts can be, and gave you a heart for helping others in retirement. What happened next?
Andrew: Yes, he was the beta client. So I started interviewing people approaching, entering, and living in retirement to confirm my dad was not an anomaly. What I found is that many people have a financial portfolio that they've worked on for years (even decades) with their financial planner, but they haven't spent time mapping their retirement lifestyle portfolio with the same amount of time and focus. So the stress of retirement and the affinity to live for themselves rather than others is a valid challenge to tackle. Many people do not have alignment, confidence, or traction moving forward, and they need someone to listen, discern, and encourage them around how to thrive in the encore of life.
A New Beginning
Jesus says in John 10:10 that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy but Jesus offers us life to the full. If we value the impact we can have and the legacy we want to leave, we will value planning to maximize our life after desk. Here’s the hope of the gospel — Jesus takes sinners like us and invites us to follow Him. That’s a new beginning. Jesus gives us new beginnings once and for all through the salvation he offers us and his mercies to us are new every morning. So in the retirement phase of life we are meant to embrace rather than get stuck in the stress or self-indulgence.
Howard: So you aim to help people to retire on purpose instead of retiring on accident.
Andrew: Exactly. And, when you look at the Bible, God is commissioning and recommissioning people who are described as “old and advanced in years” and are in the later stages of life. God calls them to be engaged with his work in the world.
The people you would say are “past their prime” are the people God invites to participate. Think about the heroes of the Bible and how old some of those characters were. Moses was 80 years old when he returned to Egypt and led the Israelites through the Red Sea. Joshua was in his mid-80’s when God said to him in Joshua 13:1, “you are old and advanced in years, but there is more land still to possess” in the conquest. Daniel was in his 70’s when he was commanded to stop praying and ended up in the lion’s den. And, in Acts 20:24 Paul says “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself” as he says goodbye to the church in Ephesus.
The Bible is full of people being commissioned and recommissioned for meaningful, gospel work as they age.
Howard: So, what you’re saying is we need to think about retirement in a different way.
Andrew: Yes we do, and when we read God’s word, we discover that the Bible casts a much different vision for our next stage of life.
The Encore of Life
Carter: Andrew, you mentioned that we need to retire the word retirement and start calling it an Encore. What is your vision for an Encore?
Andrew: When people retire from paid work, the assumption may be that their best work is behind them. But every great concert or show has an Encore. And there are some assumptions behind an Encore we don’t even realize. When the curtain goes down and your favorite artist walks off stage, we applaud with the expectation that the show isn’t over yet. We expect an Encore. And, we know the Encore is the best part of the show. Whether you’re looking to switch careers for the sake of greater purpose, or you are graduating from paid work, God has plans for you to live with eternal purposes in mind, purposes that make life meaningful now and in order to leave a legacy. The Encore of life is when we recommit our time, talent, and treasure to God’s glory.
Howard: It’s a great metaphor. How would we begin thinking about this from a biblical perspective? So you’re really calling those entering retirement to consider the examples of Scripture as an outline for their retirement lifestyle.
Andrew: That’s exactly right. Because God numbers our days, He sustains us and keeps us alive until the work He desires to do is complete. Hebrews 12:2 says we run the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus writes our story, not us. It’s our responsibility to follow Him in all of life but we’re drawing special attention to the encore of life.
Discovering Your Encore
Carter: So what is your process in working with people to discern and discover the Encore of life?
Andrew: Let’s think for a moment about the process of choosing where to go to college. This decision takes time. It’s probably an 18-24 month process. By the end of your sophomore year of high school and beginning of junior year, you are scheduling when to take the ACT/SAT tests, thinking about how much tuition and scholarships will affect your decision, how far from home you can/should go, if you want to attend a big state school or a smaller private college, what kind of campus environment you are looking for. Those categories include aptitudes, finance, travel, housing, and amenities. These are all categories we also need to address in the Encore.
But the biggest factor in our college decision should be whether the school we attend has the major we want to study. Not everyone sticks with their first major, but you ought to pick a school based on the major you want and if their program will allow you to flourish and thrive when you finish school. If not, we need to find another school or decide to change our major.
Retirement is a lot like the college process. We need to think about all the things we really want to major in when we enter the encore of life. If we don’t prioritize what matters most, understand how to translate that into meaningful work, and create a schedule and process to get there, we might wander through retirement without knowing we have missed out on all that God made us to be and do.
To help people do this, I have created a curriculum that takes people through conversations, exercises, and reflections that lead them toward the mission and purpose they will have in their Encore of life. We typically meet every two weeks, for 8 sessions, usually 90 minutes each. We meet every other week so there is time between each session for homework, if you want to think of it that way, that allows you to reflect and distill what will matter most to you in the encore.
In our sessions, we spend time:
- Discovering your unique gifts
- Writing a personal mission statement
- Determining the values you will cherish and live by
- Acknowledging the losses and gains of your transition
- Drafting your Encore job title
- Evaluating who your key relationships and commitments in life and how to accelerate your impact for each area
- Cultivating creativity and generosity
- Helping you find ways to serve your neighbor and neighborhood
- Evaluating your roles and establish rhythms
- Creating a lifestyle calendar
Howard: So what are our next steps? What should we do now?
Andrew: Don’t believe the lie that retirement is overly stressful or overly self indulgent. Romans 12:2 says we should not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds to discern the Lord’s good, pleasing and perfect will. So here are three things to do next:
First, know that God has a marvelous plan for you through salvation in Jesus. That’s the new beginning everyone needs!
Second, do not fear retirement or any other life transition because God is with you in it!
Finally, if you are struggling or eager to discover God’s specific purposes for you in retirement, contact us at The Center Memphis. We want to help you live in God’s good purposes during this season of life.
Resources
John 10:10
Joshua 13:1
Acts 20:24