When Work Ends, Money Doesn’t Answer the Question ‘Who Am I Now?’
- May 6
- 2 min read
For people who don’t have a lot of money, it’s a common misconception that life is a lot easier for those who do.
Through my coaching with clients who are in their 50s and 60s, I work with people who have worked all their lives, who have been made redundant and are now worrying about how to pay the bills and I also work with people who have made money and having retired in their mid-fifties, are now wondering what to do with the rest of their lives.
Those who don’t have money naturally assume that this new stage of life must be so much easier for those who do. I don’t think this is necessarily true.
The transition from full-time employment to whatever might come next throws up all sorts of challenges, no matter how much money you have. In fact, this transition can be more destabilising for the wealthy and successful banker than it is for the rest of us.
The loss of identity and status can be much harder to manage if you have spent your life travelling the world, advising CEOs of Footsie 100 companies and then suddenly… you’re not. If you’re no longer Angela or David, the successful banker, pillar of the local community, always reliable for a sizeable cheque for a local charity, then who exactly are you?
If you have made some money. you might have thought that this would be the time to travel and cross off all those items on the ‘bucket list’. But perhaps your partner now has a career that won’t allow them the time to travel? Children have grandparenting requests. Parents might need support as they enter their 80s and 90s…Heading off around the world might not be a realistic option…
Up until this point in our 50s and 60s, life has for many of us been quite linear. School was followed by university, which was then followed by a thirty plus year career with perhaps the odd change of employer or location. When this trajectory come to an end, the question of ‘what next?’ applies to all of us and having money doesn’t always make it easier to answer.
The fundemental questions of our identity and purpose when we have reached 60 and still have another twenty plus years of active life come into sharp focus for all of us.
If you are in your 50s or 60s and are struggling with the question ‘what next?’ please get in touch with me at www.staycuriouscoaching.com – whether you have made money or not!
