Working in retirement: Considering options; creating a satisfying plan

01/03

We all contemplate retirement at some point in our lives. We think about where we will be and what we will do. Before reaching this stage, however, it is important to start thinking about how we will spend our time when we retire.

Following is some food for thought for physicians who are contemplating retirement and wondering about post-retirement options.

To start with, here are some highlights from the results of a 2011 survey conducted by the OMA of its retired members:1

• Thirty-six per cent (36%) of survey respondents indicated that they worked for a salary or other compensation since retiring.

• Of the 36% who worked in retirement, only 11% indicated that they did so strictly for the income.

• Of those retirees who worked, 81% chose medical-related fields.

• The top non-financial reasons for working included: satisfaction, interaction with others, stimulation, having something to do, challenge, and other non-financial benefits.

The survey also found that 58% of retired doctors pursued voluntary or charitable activities (compared to 36% who chose to work for compensation), and here is the interesting part: although 81% of work activities related to medicine, only 35% of charitable pursuits related to medicine. In other words, if you can’t satisfy your needs and skills through work-related activities, you might consider joining the 58% who did so through charitable or voluntary pursuits.

To look at this from a different perspective, I define retirement as a career earned from, and following, work. It is the fusion of work and leisure, and an opportunity to find something that is both worthwhile and enjoyable. If you are thinking about retiring, somehow you have to find alternative activities that will enable you to replace comparable satisfactions that have been lost by not working, such as interaction with others, challenge, stimulation, etc.

The following tips can help guide you in developing a satisfying post-retirement plan:

• Regardless of whether or not you plan to work after retirement, start by identifying the conditions that will make your retirement worthwhile and enjoyable. I refer to this as establishing your Life

Goal. To do this, imagine that you will be giving up practising medicine tomorrow. The question is, what will you miss? For example, you might miss patient and peer contact, achievement, contribution, involvement, keeping current, etc. List as many of these points as possible in your Life Goal List.

• Next, add to the list any skills you may have that do not relate directly to your medical expertise, for example, leadership, teamwork, and decision-making skills; also include leisure skills, like cooking, household repairs, etc. Spend some time compiling your list — the more points you include, the more clarity you will have regarding the conditions that will make your retirement worthwhile and enjoyable. Your Life Goal List is a benchmark against which you can measure and create possible retirement pursuits.

• Once you have completed your list, select the top-five things that you would like to satisfy when you retire. If earning an income is among your top five, that is likely a strong indicator that you should be looking for a way to make money. But consider this: working to earn an income may limit the level of personal satisfaction you might derive from the work, and since post-retirement presents an opportunity to increase your personal satisfaction levels, it might be an ideal time to focus on non-financial goals. On the other hand, if money is among the top-five things on your Life Goals List, and you are able to find post-retirement work that satisfies all of the other points on your list as well, that would be ideal.

You can evaluate any activity that you wish to undertake — whether work-related or not — by simply imagining that you are participating in that activity, and asking yourself whether or not each of the needs and skills on your Life Goal List will be met by that activity. Of course, you may have to wait until you retire and actually experience an activity to realize the true benefit from this exercise.

For example, if you are thinking about finding work in retirement, and wondering if it should be in a medical or non-medical field, you can use your Life Goal List to evaluate either option. It’s possible that if you took

on the challenge of a non-medical work situation it might have a greater probability of satisfying your need for, say, stimulation, creativity, novelty, challenge, meeting new people, and so on. Keep in mind that although it may be easier to find something in the medical field, you may find it more satisfying to “re-invent” yourself in a non-medical environment.

Should your chosen post-retirement path prove unsuccessful in fulfilling your needs, you can use your Life Goal List to help you identify more suitable retirement activities, or create new opportunities. You can begin this process by brainstorming some ideas or suggestions of activities that might enable you to satisfy the items on your list. You can brainstorm on your own, or preferably with your spouse, a small group of friends, relatives, or work colleagues. Each person can make up his or her own Life Goal List, and you can brainstorm ideas and suggestions to each other. Once you have a few ideas or suggestions in hand, do your homework; talk to people who are involved in that particular activity, read about it, do whatever it takes to find out more information.

Through this process — and here is the key — you might come up with another, and perhaps more realistic, idea that would never have occurred to you before you started your investigation. You can even use this process to brainstorm some money-making ideas, should you want to earn money but prefer not to work for somebody else. In this scenario, you will be looking for suggestions that satisfy the items on your Life Goal List, but with the added condition that the suggestions satisfy your need for extra money as well.

If you do start down a particular path, and things do not pan out to your satisfaction, consider the experience as simply one-step in your retirement career. Who knows, you might discover an idea that may never have occurred to you otherwise, and you may still be able to benefit from the experience.

1. The OMA online survey was sent to 1,380 retired members in 2011. A total of 330 members participated in the survey (a 24% response rate), but only 180 responses were fully completed and used for the purposes of this research.

We all contemplate retirement at some point in our lives. We think about where we will be and what we will do. Before reaching this stage, however, it is important to start thinking about how we will spend our time when we retire.

Following is some food for thought for physicians who are contemplating retirement and wondering about post-retirement options.

To start with, here are some highlights from the results of a 2011 survey conducted by the OMA of its retired members:1

• Thirty-six per cent (36%) of survey respondents indicated that they worked for a salary or other compensation since retiring.

• Of the 36% who worked in retirement, only 11% indicated that they did so strictly for the income.

• Of those retirees who worked, 81% chose medical-related fields.

• The top non-financial reasons for working included: satisfaction, interaction with others, stimulation, having something to do, challenge, and other non-financial benefits.

The survey also found that 58% of retired doctors pursued voluntary or charitable activities (compared to 36% who chose to work for compensation), and here is the interesting part: although 81% of work activities related to medicine, only 35% of charitable pursuits related to medicine. In other words, if you can’t satisfy your needs and skills through work-related activities, you might consider joining the 58% who did so through charitable or voluntary pursuits.

To look at this from a different perspective, I define retirement as a career earned from, and following, work. It is the fusion of work and leisure, and an opportunity to find something that is both worthwhile and enjoyable. If you are thinking about retiring, somehow you have to find alternative activities that will enable you to replace comparable satisfactions that have been lost by not working, such as interaction with others, challenge, stimulation, etc.

The following tips can help guide you in developing a satisfying post-retirement plan:

• Regardless of whether or not you plan to work after retirement, start by identifying the conditions that will make your retirement worthwhile and enjoyable. I refer to this as establishing your Life

Goal. To do this, imagine that you will be giving up practising medicine tomorrow. The question is, what will you miss? For example, you might miss patient and peer contact, achievement, contribution, involvement, keeping current, etc. List as many of these points as possible in your Life Goal List.

• Next, add to the list any skills you may have that do not relate directly to your medical expertise, for example, leadership, teamwork, and decision-making skills; also include leisure skills, like cooking, household repairs, etc. Spend some time compiling your list — the more points you include, the more clarity you will have regarding the conditions that will make your retirement worthwhile and enjoyable. Your Life Goal List is a benchmark against which you can measure and create possible retirement pursuits.

• Once you have completed your list, select the top-five things that you would like to satisfy when you retire. If earning an income is among your top five, that is likely a strong indicator that you should be looking for a way to make money. But consider this: working to earn an income may limit the level of personal satisfaction you might derive from the work, and since post-retirement presents an opportunity to increase your personal satisfaction levels, it might be an ideal time to focus on non-financial goals. On the other hand, if money is among the top-five things on your Life Goals List, and you are able to find post-retirement work that satisfies all of the other points on your list as well, that would be ideal.

You can evaluate any activity that you wish to undertake — whether work-related or not — by simply imagining that you are participating in that activity, and asking yourself whether or not each of the needs and skills on your Life Goal List will be met by that activity. Of course, you may have to wait until you retire and actually experience an activity to realize the true benefit from this exercise.

For example, if you are thinking about finding work in retirement, and wondering if it should be in a medical or non-medical field, you can use your Life Goal List to evaluate either option. It’s possible that if you took

02/03

on the challenge of a non-medical work situation it might have a greater probability of satisfying your need for, say, stimulation, creativity, novelty, challenge, meeting new people, and so on. Keep in mind that although it may be easier to find something in the medical field, you may find it more satisfying to “re-invent” yourself in a non-medical environment.

Should your chosen post-retirement path prove unsuccessful in fulfilling your needs, you can use your Life Goal List to help you identify more suitable retirement activities, or create new opportunities. You can begin this process by brainstorming some ideas or suggestions of activities that might enable you to satisfy the items on your list. You can brainstorm on your own, or preferably with your spouse, a small group of friends, relatives, or work colleagues. Each person can make up his or her own Life Goal List, and you can brainstorm ideas and suggestions to each other. Once you have a few ideas or suggestions in hand, do your homework; talk to people who are involved in that particular activity, read about it, do whatever it takes to find out more information.

Through this process — and here is the key — you might come up with another, and perhaps more realistic, idea that would never have occurred to you before you started your investigation. You can even use this process to brainstorm some money-making ideas, should you want to earn money but prefer not to work for somebody else. In this scenario, you will be looking for suggestions that satisfy the items on your Life Goal List, but with the added condition that the suggestions satisfy your need for extra money as well.

If you do start down a particular path, and things do not pan out to your satisfaction, consider the experience as simply one-step in your retirement career. Who knows, you might discover an idea that may never have occurred to you otherwise, and you may still be able to benefit from the experience.

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For additional information on retirement planning, please refer to the OMA Practice Management & Education (PME) guidebook, “Closing a Practice: A Guide for Physicians”. PME resources aim to help physicians maintain a successful medical practice, including skills development, usable tools, and medical billing support. Additional resources on these and other topics are available at www.oma.org.

This article was written by Alan Roadburg, PhD and originally published in the May 2012 issue of the Ontario Medical Review.