The day you retire, if you choose to retire, is hardly the end of your life story. It’s simply the beginning of your second act. In fact, retirement is a misnomer. You’re moving on from a career, not commencing a decades-long nap!
So we say retirement is a milestone, not a phase. Post-retirement is a time to make your life really interesting. You have the chance to live out dreams that once seemed impractical or frivolous. Art, music, craftsmanship, gardening, learning, writing, community service, travel, adventure, sport, love, spiritual pursuits, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, of course.
Feeling really motivated? Maybe start a business. If you did, you wouldn’t be alone.
The highest rate of entrepreneurship worldwide has shifted to the 55–64 age group. Entrepreneurs over 50 are almost twice as likely to found successful companies than those between 20 and 34.
Although youthful energy and optimism are admirable “older people are likely to have more skills and knowledge, including awareness of markets, and better access to the information, networks and other resources needed to launch a successful business,” says the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
The mean age of founders of the top 0.1% fastest-growing new ventures is 45, not 25. Nearly half (46%) of people who start small businesses are between the ages of 41 and 56. Charles Flint was 61 when he founded the forerunner of IBM.
“Make no mistake, this is a switch that can be terrifying,” writes senior entrepreneur guru Wendy Mayhew, “but thrilling all in the same breath.”
At Kendal at Home, we’re fascinated by our members’ staggering diversity of second acts, entrepreneurial and otherwise. (In fact, we’re feeling a bit entrepreneurial ourselves as we bring our aging-in-place services to residents of Massachusetts and expand in Ohio.) By helping members age healthfully in their own homes, we support your preferred lifestyle as you explore your post-retirement second act, whatever it is, on your own terms.
And with zero limits. Because you never know: 90% of new American billionaires are self-made.
